Global Policy Forum

By Edith M. Lederer

Brazil's AIDS chief accused the Bush administration of protecting the interests of drug companies instead of promoting cheaper drugs to fight AIDS in developing countries. Paulo Teixeira said Wednesday his government is ''very surprised'' that President Bush has toughened the US position on Brazil's policy of producing cheap generic drugs and providing an anti-AIDS ''cocktail'' free to anyone who needs it. The Brazilian program hailed by doctors as a model for developing countries has cut AIDS deaths by 50 percent to 70 percent, he said.

But a report on patent protections, released by the Bush administration Monday, put Brazil and a number of other countries on notice that they could face US trade sanctions unless they remove objectionable trade barriers to US products. US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said Brazil's patent law discriminated against all imported products, not just drugs. However, the United States on February 1 filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization contending that Brazil's patent law discriminates against drug imports in violation of the rights of drug companies.

Teixeira told a UN news conference that Brazil had been optimistic about negotiating the WTO complaint last week, but after Zoellick's announcement, it finds the entire US approach to combating AIDS ''unacceptable.'' Brazil will campaign to give drug treatment a much higher priority in upcoming discussions on a global fund to combat AIDS, and at a June AIDS summit in New York, Teixeira said.

In his report, Zoellick named three countries with limited means that the United States believes have done ''an excellent job addressing the AIDS crisis'' Uganda, Senegal and Thailand. ''The cost of drugs is but one of many important issues that must be addressed,'' Zoellick said, in addition to education and prevention.

But Teixeira said the United States chose Thailand, Senegal and Uganda as examples because they have made good progress in AIDS prevention but none provide extensive treatment with anti-AIDS drugs. He warned that the global fight against AIDS will be lost if the focus remains on prevention without a major investment in treatment.

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