The ''Pledge to Africa Act'' (the ''Act'') (long title: ''An Act to amend the Patent Act and the Food and Drugs Act (The Jean Chrétien Pledge to Africa'') is an Act of the

Parliament of Canada The Parliament of Canada (french: Parlement du Canada) is the federal legislature of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and is composed of three parts: the King, the Senate, and the House of Commons. By constitutional convention, the ...

. It was Bill C-9 of the third session of the

37th Canadian Parliament The 37th Canadian Parliament was in session from January 29, 2001, until May 23, 2004. The membership was set by the 2000 Canadian federal election, 2000 federal election on November 27, 2000, and it changed only somewhat due to resignations and ...

. The legislation amends the ''Patent Act'' and the ''Food and Drugs Act'' to implement

Canada's Access to Medicines Regime Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by total ...

. It represented the first implementation of the

TRIPS The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an international legal agreement between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It establishes minimum standards for the regulation by nat ...

flexibilities declared in the August 30, 2003, General Council decision. Enacted in May 2004, it allows Canada to enact

compulsory license A compulsory license provides that the owner of a patent or copyright licenses the use of their rights against payment either set by law or determined through some form of adjudication or arbitration. In essence, under a compulsory license, an i ...

s to export

essential medicines Essential medicines, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), are the medicines that "satisfy the priority health care needs of the population". These are the medications to which people should have access at all times in sufficient a ...

to countries without the capacity to manufacture their own. Other countries that have since enacted similar legislation include

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and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Purpose

The purpose of the ''Act'' is to improve access to drugs for developing countries that lack the resources to manufacture the drugs and cannot afford to buy them at the usual market cost. The drugs that fight these diseases are expensive to create and manufacture and thus are usually unaffordable for those who need them the most.The Jean Chrétien Pledge to Africa Act: Patent Law and Humanitarian Aid
/ref> The ''Pledge to Africa Act'' allows for the

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

s on these drugs to be overridden so that manufacturers can produce generic versions of the drug to sell in underdeveloped countries.

Criticisms

Some questions have been raised concerning the ''Acts efficacy, or lack thereof, at increasing the availability of pharmaceuticals in poor nations.ipilogue » Blog Archive » Is Canada Delivering on its Pledge to Aid Africa?
/ref>
It took a full year from the time the bill was introduced to the time that it came into effect. Since the ''Act'' came into effect in 2005, only one drug has been manufactured and exported under the act. It has been suggested that this is because restrictions incorporated into the ''Act'' make it too difficult for

generic drug A generic drug is a pharmaceutical drug that contains the same chemical substance as a drug that was originally protected by chemical patents. Generic drugs are allowed for sale after the patents on the original drugs expire. Because the active ch ...

companies to get permission to produce a generic and to export it to countries in need. The process for obtaining

exemptions under the ''Act'' is quite costly, and the exemption must be renewed every two years. As such, it may not be economically viable for generic drug makers to apply for an exemption, or even if it is, the expense and mandated frequent renewals may tend to discourage generic makers from applying. Additionally, exporting pharmaceuticals under the ''Act'' to countries that are not part of the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...

TRIPS agreement The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an international legal agreement between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It establishes minimum standards for the regulation by nat ...

is made more difficult by further restrictions.

References and notes

External links

* http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Docid=2331620&file=4 — the full text of the Bill * http://www.camr-rcam.gc.ca/ — the Canadian government site for the Regime * http://www.aidslaw.ca/camr/ * https://web.archive.org/web/20070209020526/http://www.law.utoronto.ca/accesstodrugs/ * http://www.cptech.org/ip/health/c/canada/c9.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Pledge To Africa Act Canadian federal legislation Foreign relations of Canada Canadian patent law Pharmaceuticals policy 2004 in Canadian law 2004 in international relations Health in Africa 2004 in Africa 37th Canadian Parliament

Purpose

Criticisms

References and notes

See also

External links