Brussels, 08/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 4 May, the government of President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva decided to break off negotiations on intellectual property rights called for by the company Merck Sharp and Dohme, and to permit the production and sales of a generic version of the drug Efavirenz, which is used in the treatment of 75,000 Brazilian patients infected by HIV, the Parliamentary group European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) has announced. The group welcomes this decision of the Brazilian president and his health minister. “By adopting this obligatory licence, the progressive Brazilian government shows that it is making the public health of its citizens its priority in relation to the exorbitant rights demanded by the pharmaceutical laboratories, which profit from WTO provisions to make shameless profits”, states the GUE group, which calls upon the Commission and the Council of Ministers of the European Union clearly to voice their support for Brazil's decision, and to encourage other governments to do the same. The group points out that it has already repeatedly requested that the WTO's TRIPS agreement is amended in depth, in order to facilitate the effective access by all countries to the medicines necessary to fight epidemics, so as to guarantee the health of their populations. (oj)