“The United States killed the deal because they could not distance themselves from their pharma industry. But there are many silver linings to not having this particular deal.

“The Motta proposal was riddled with flaws and limitations. It had a very restrictive annex designed to limit imports to middle income countries, complicated and burdensome safeguards that do not apply to other types of compulsory licensing, a a potentially costly legal mechanism, a loss of sovereignty over the setting of compensation, and other issues. The US, EC, Canada, Switzerland, Japan and Australia had won on almost everything, but the scope of diseases. The US was arrogant, and wanted to win on everything. Now everything is back in play. Several countries indicated all bets are off on the annex, and legal mechanism and other issues.

“The US wants to have a global debate over the issue of the scope of diseases. George Bush and Robert Zoellick want to argue that the diseases their own children receive treatment for are off limits to poor children in poor countries. They cannot win this argument.

James Love
202-361-3040