In fact, the World Health Organization maintains a list of certified drugs from pharmaceutical companies in other countries that violate U.S. patent laws.
Before Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva decided to violate U.S. patent law, his country's health ministry negotiated hard with Merck over prices. But the health ministry said Merck did not come down enough in price to make its AIDS drug Efavirenz affordable for Brazil.
Silva signed the presidential proclamation at 11 a.m. local time.
Silva's decree is the first time that Brazil has violated U.S. drug patent laws since it first recognized them in 1996, Michel Lotrowska, Brazil's representative of the access campaign for essential medicines at Doctors Without Borders told Bloomberg News.
Unlike the United States, Brazil offers free treatment to all its 200,000 citizens infected with AIDS and HIV.
"This (violating U.S. patents to lower costs) is progress, as it's the only way to cut drug prices since patents don't allow a natural competition in the market,'' Lotrowska told Bloomberg in a telephone interview from Rio de Janeiro.
Under this plan Brazil will lower the cost of pills from the $1.10, Merck offered under a 30 percent discount, to $0.45 for an Indian made version.
The Merck pills normally retail for $1.59 and Brazil had asked Merck for the same pricing Thailand gets, which is $0.65 per pill. But Merck balked and now will get only a small royalty for India's generic version.
Both Brazilian laws and WHO regulations allow countries to violate drug patent laws when there is a health emergency or if the pharmaceutical industry abuses its pricing policies.
Since Brazil pays for medical care for its citizens with AIDS and HIV and because 75,000 Brazilians use Efavirenz, the situation qualifies as a health emergency.
While political analysts fear that Brazil's decision might have a chilling effect on research for drugs that involve diseases found in developing nations, the truth is that in a world of global travel few diseases remain isolated. But according to media reports over the past few years, other analysts say that big pharmaceutical companies could continue with research and still maintain healthy profits by cutting back on perks to executive level employees.
