Yesterday, the Canadian Parliament voted down Bill C-398, which would have streamlined the Canadian legal framework allowing generic firms to export medicines produced under compulsory license to developing countries.

The existing framework, Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR), establishes a mechanism for firms to produce essential drugs that are under patent in Canada and export them to developing countries. The mechanism involves steps to comply with WTO rules on compulsory licenses. However, the Canadian system (and the WTO system) have been criticized as overly bureaucratic and cumbersome – and therefore ineffective. Since the CAMR went into effect in 2004, only one generic firm has used it, for one shipment of medicines.

CAMR requires a firm planning to export medicines under the system to obtain new licenses every time it wants to send a shipment to any country. Bill C-398 would have instituted a streamlined system under which a generic firm could obtain one license, and then export to pre-approved countries without applying for new licenses each time.

In recent weeks,  both branded and generic pharmaceutical firms voiced their public support for C-398.  It also had wide support among civil society groups.  For instance, a statement by 80 groups urged Members of Parliament to “fix Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime and make a significant contribution to overcoming [HIV/AIDS].”

However, opposition remained within the conservative party, and as reported by Pharmalot,  the bill was ultimately “defeated by a slim margin, 148 to 141, thanks to opposition from the Conservative-led government.”

In a statement, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network remarked:

We are profoundly disappointed that Parliament has decided to reject reason and overwhelming evidence by defeating Bill C-398, which would have ensured greater access to affordable medicines for people dying of treatable diseases such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in developing countries. By choosing to believe the blatant lies and misinformation circulating about this bill, MPs who voted against the bill have reneged on Parliament’s earlier pledge and have betrayed people in developing countries — including hundreds of thousands of children — who need medicines to prevent suffering and death, including from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.