At long last, the campaign to fix Canada`s broken Access to Medicines Regime
(CAMR) is on the brink of success. This week, it depends on the willingness and
commitment of Members of Parliament to do the
right thing by passing private member`s Bill C-393 in the House of Commons on Wednesday evening in the House of Commons. It then
falls to the Senate to act without delay to approve the bill.
Last week, the House of Commons voted to restore the core clauses to Bill C-393
that had been stripped from it at committee, a triumph for supporters of the
bill. In particular, the House has restored the "one-licence clause"
that is the key change needed to streamline the current cumbersome Access to
Medicines Regime and make it workable.
First created in 2004 by a unanimous vote in both houses of Parliament, CAMR
was intended to deliver less expensive, generic versions of high-priced,
brand-name medicines to those suffering and dying in developing countries from
public health problems, including HIV. The
life-saving promise of CAMR transcended partisan politics and all MPs and
senators agreed: people should not die simply because they cannot afford
medication.
But, as is sometimes the case, what works on paper has not worked in practice.
In reality, and as predicted by NGOs at the time of its inception, CAMR has
proven to be a cumbersome and unworkable "non-solution" to the
problem of unaffordable medicines in developing countries.
In its seven years of existence, CAMR has been used only once, to deliver a
single order of one AIDS medicine to one country (Rwanda). The Canadian generic drug company that made this single
act of humanitarianism happen has made it clear that it won`t jump through CAMR`s
current bureaucratic hoops a second time around.
Yet it has also repeatedly committed to trying again if Bill C-393`s key
reforms are passed by Parliament. Its first step
will be to use the simplified CAMR to produce a child-suitable version of a
much-needed AIDS drug.
Alas, until such reforms are implemented, nobody else is willing to use the
current CAMR either. Medecins Sans Frontieres ultimately abandoned its long
effort to use CAMR because of unnecessary hurdles. Representatives from
developing countries who have considered CAMR consistently wonder why Canada
made the regime user-unfriendly in the first place and if it was ever actually
intended to work.
Enter Bill C-393, a beacon of hope in the quest to fix CAMR. This "little
bill that could" has overcome hurdle after hurdle to get this far, thanks
to the support and concern of thousands and thousands of Canadians.
Hundreds of members of the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign have mobilized
in over 200 groups across the country; 32,000 Canadians signed a petition
tabled in Parliament; more than 12,000 sent postcards to the Industry
Committee. Tens of thousands have emailed, written or called their MPs. Dozens
of diverse faith leaders, including the most senior representatives of numerous
religious traditions, have echoed the call, as have dozens of leading
physicians and other health professionals, in an open letter to
Parliamentarians issued today. Dozens of prominent Canadians, including the
former prime minister whose government created CAMR in the first place, have
done the same.
Bill C-393 has widespread support in the House of Commons, across party lines,
in keeping with the wishes of Canadians - a national poll found that 80 per
cent support the bill to make CAMR work. Indeed, so they should. Fixing CAMR is
the right thing to do. Even better, it costs taxpayers nothing - and in fact,
means that taxpayer dollars for foreign aid can be used even more effectively
to get more medicines to more people. This is "value for money."
Happily for concerned Canadians, even with opposition from the current federal
government and an active campaign of misinformation by "Big Pharma,"
there may be light at the end of the tunnel for Bill C-393.
The New Democratic Party (which brought forward
the bill), the Bloc Quebecois and the Liberal Party are now all officially on
record as supporting Bill C-393 - and a growing number of Conservative MPs have
confirmed they too will vote in support of the bill at third reading.
Bill C-393 presents Parliamentarians, in both the House and the Senate, with a
chance to co-operate across party lines and deliver, at long last, on
Parliament`s unanimous pledge to developing countries made almost seven years
ago when it first created CAMR. The question now is whether they will seize
this opportunity or squander it - and whether those suffering and dying in the
developing world will live or be left to die. On the eve of a possible
election, Canadians are watching.
