Speech by the Foreign Minister of Brazil, Ambassador Celso Amorim, at the 60th World Health Assembly — Geneva, 15 May 2007.

Madam Director-General of the WHO [World Health Organization],

Distinguished delegates,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a pleasure to return to Geneva and address the World Health Assembly, on behalf of the Brazilian Health Minister, José Gomes Temporão, and on my own behalf. For Brazil, the promotion of health is a state policy that cuts across different sectors. To be effective, domestic policies and external actions must complement each other.

The national interest measured in terms of the well being of our people – especially the poorest – must be the central tenet of government policy. But the national interest must be combined with active solidarity with other peoples.

In a globalized world, in which global threats come mainly from poverty, alienation and social exclusion, solidarity is not only a moral duty, it is a display of enlightened self-interest. Since his first meetings with the leaders of world’s richest countries, in Davos and Evian, this has been President Lula’s main message.

Health is at the core of the Action Against Hunger and Poverty, launched by President Lula and other world leaders in New York in 2004. Health is key to development and to combating poverty. “Hunger and disease are twins”, said President Lula at the United Nations General Assembly last year. On that occasion Brazil, France, Chile, Norway and the United Kingdom launched the International Drug Purchase Facility, UNITAID. This initiative is being established as an innovative funding mechanism to accelerate access to high-quality drugs and diagnosis for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

South-South cooperation can play a central role in fighting infectious diseases. Brazil is presently cooperating with Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique, among others, to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We have provided anti-retroviral medicine and have assisted in the prevention of mother-child transmission. We have also been involved in the training of medical personnel and the installation of infrastructure for treatment.

In Haiti – together with India and South Africa, our partners in the IBSA Forum – we have been developing a programme of management of solid waste. Last year this project won a United Nations award as the best South-South cooperation initiative.

Brazil wants to explore possibilities for cooperation with international organizations such as the WHO. We also want to expand trilateral cooperation with developed countries to the benefit of poorer nations. Together with Canada we are supporting Haiti's vaccination programme against hepatitis-B.

Madam Director-General,

Brazil has been scrupulously fulfilling its commitments with regard to intellectual property. But the rules governing intellectual property, especially when they relate to public health, must respond to the public interest. The TRIPS agreement itself recognizes this fact. Furthermore, the Doha Ministerial Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health states that the TRIPS Agreement “does not and should not prevent Members from taking measures to protect public health”.

On May 4 2007 President Lula decreed the compulsory licensing of patents related to an anti-retroviral medicine used by the National STD/AIDS Programme. This programme, which is mandatory by law, ensures free treatment for all Brazilians infected with HIV/AIDS. It is internationally recognized as an example of a successful public policy. Apart from being entirely consistent with international rules on intellectual property, the measure adopted by the Brazilian government has been taken with complete transparency and respect towards the patent holder.

This time, not even those who are normally critics of any form of government action in socio-economic affairs were able to deny that the measure taken by Brazil was unassailable either on moral or legal grounds. Some of them expressed concern about its negative impact on investment. But here one is led to ask: what kind of investment? Not in the production of medicines. Much less in research and development aimed at new technological advances, since, as we all know, such activities are restricted to the headquarters of the big pharmaceutical companies or, at most, to their affiliates in other developed countries. In any case, no consideration of an economic nature can stand on the way of actions aimed at saving tens of thousands of human lives. As President Lula has said, commercial considerations of any kind, including profits, cannot take precedence over the health of the Brazilian people, or, for that matter, of any other people.

Whatever expertise and technology we are able to develop, we will be glad to share it with other countries, especially the poor nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The WHO is currently involved in the examination of issues related to intellectual property from the perspective of public health. We are confident that the Working Group on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Public Health will not only confirm the flexibilities enjoyed by developing countries but will also find new and innovative ways to deal with the issue of better, freer access to healthcare for those who need it most.

Madam Director-General,

It has often been said that hunger does not result from a lack of food, but from a lack of income. Likewise, disease is often not caused by the absence of medicines, but by the absence of adequate means to gain access to them. This, along with the promotion of research and development in developing countries, is the biggest challenge faced by the WHO.

Thank you.