A U.S. drive for bilateral trade deals is undermining an international pact to provide cheap copycat AIDS drugs to the developing world, France said Tuesday.

In thinly veiled criticism of the Bush administration, French Development Minister Xavier Darcos said Washington must honor the spirit of a multilateral trade commitment made in 2001 giving poor countries access to cheap generic drugs.

“We should implement the generic drug agreement to consolidate price reductions,” Darcos told the 15th International AIDS Conference in Bangkok.

AIDS activists accuse the United States of ignoring the 2001 Doha world trade agreement that allows poor countries with health crises to put the need to treat people above international patent obligations.

Since Doha, Washington has adopted a bilateral trade approach which critics say could close the door on cheap AIDS drugs.

“Making certain countries drop these measures in the framework of bilateral trade negotiations would be tantamount to blackmail,” Darcos said.

“What is the point in starting treatment without any guarantee of having quality and affordable drugs in the long-term?” he asked.

But Darcos was also jeered. Catcalls rang out for more than five minutes before he spoke as protesters reinforced criticism of France at the conference for what they called its failure to keep funding promises in the global fight against AIDS.

FEW GET THE DRUGS

The Doha deal paved the way for affordable antiretroviral (ARV) AIDS drugs to the developing world, where treatment regimes now cost around $1 per day.

Despite a decline of 95 percent in the cost of AIDS drugs in developing countries due to pressure on Western manufacturers and the advent of generics, ARV drugs still only reach 7 percent of the six million AIDS sufferers who need immediate treatment.

France’s AIDS ambassador, Mireille Guigaz, denied Paris was picking a fight with Washington after bitter clashes over Iraq. But she said U.S. trade policy was defending big U.S. drug companies, which say they need patent protection to provide financial incentives to develop new drugs.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a top U.S. government scientist at the conference, declined to comment on the French charges.

Washington has already concluded trade deals with Jordan, Chile and Singapore that include provisions to strengthen patent protection for costly brand-name drugs.

Key to new deals under negotiation with Thailand and five countries in southern Africa - the epicenter of the AIDS pandemic - are thought to be five-year “data exclusivity” clauses that bar companies making generic medicines from the original developer’s test data.

Without access to this data, generic drug companies would be unable to copy the AIDS medicines of the future, making long-term treatment of sufferers in the developing world unaffordable.

“These Free Trade Agreements contain provisions that will kill people with HIV/AIDS,” said Asia Russell of Health GAP, an AIDS activist group. “Through stipulations included in the FTAs, the U.S. is putting patent rights over patient rights.”

Pfizer chief executive Hank McKinnell said a balance had to be found between the need to provide cheap drugs for as many people as possible and the need to give multinational pharmaceutical firms incentives to develop new treatments.

“What is the right balance between a patient’s needs now and his needs in the future? The answer is not either/or - we need both,” McKinnell said.