US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick announced late in June that US and Brazilian officials would begin negotiating their way through a patent law dispute—one that carries important implications for manufacturing and pricing of AIDS and other therapeutic products—instead of through litigation before the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, although this move to bilateral negotiations apparently provides some political breathing room for the Bush administration in terms of its dealings with a major trading partner in Latin America, it cedes no major ground in terms of drug pricing or patent protection policies—despite widespread reports to the contrary.
Late in April 2000, US officials asked WTO to review a provision in Brazilian patent law permitting the government to license local manufacturers to produce any patented product whose inventor (or licensee) does not commercialize within three years after receiving the patent. Although this provision was invoked as a potential means for Brazilian companies locally and cheaply to produce newer AIDS drugs, Brazilian officials never actually implemented this part of the law for the purpose of making such drugs—even if they sometimes used it for leverage for negotiating drug-purchasing agreements and for gaining support for it through the news media, according to industry sources.
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