View source for Canada's Access to Medicines Regime

{{for|the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research|Public Health England}}

'''Canada's Access to Medicines Regime''' ({{langx|fr|Régime canadien d'accès aux médicaments}}, CAMR) is a process established by the Canadian government that allows Canada to enact [[compulsory license]]s to export [[essential medicines]] to countries without the capacity to manufacture their own.

The Regime was established in 2004 by ''An Act to amend the Patent Act and the Food and Drugs Act'', also known as the "[[Jean Chrétien]] [[Pledge to Africa Act]]", along with other regulations, in a bill introduced as C-9 in the third session of the [[37th Canadian Parliament]].<ref name="CAMR: Background">{{cite web|url=http://www.camr-rcam.gc.ca/intro/context-eng.php|title=Background|date=26 July 2004 |publisher=CAMR|accessdate=19 September 2014}}</ref> It represented the first implementation of the [[TRIPS]] flexibilities declared in the August 30, 2003 General Council decision of the [[World Trade Organization]].

== History ==
CAMR gained force of law in 2004. At the time of a statutory governmental review in 2007, the Regime had not yet been used. The review concluded that, due to insufficient evidence, "the case for making legislative or regulatory changes to CAMR has not yet been made out".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://camr-rcam.gc.ca/review-reviser/camr_rcam_report_rapport-eng.php|title=Report on the Statutory Review of Sections 21.01 to 21.19 of the Patent Act|date=26 July 2004 |publisher=CAMR|accessdate=19 September 2014}}</ref>

CAMR has since been used once: in 2008-2009, [[Apotex]], Inc. used the Regime to manufacture and export two shipments of a patented [[antiretroviral]] medication to [[Rwanda]]. Apotex has since stated that it does not intend to use the Regime again unless it is reformed, claiming that the Regime imposes unnecessary bureaucratic and economic obstacles.<ref name="Apotex press release: CAMR Federal Law Needs to be Fixed if Life-Saving Drugs for Children are to be Developed (May 14, 2009)">[http://www.apotex.com/global/about/press/20090514.asp ] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091020111516/http://www.apotex.com/global/about/press/20090514.asp |date=October 20, 2009 }}</ref>

A private members' bill that would reform the CAMR was tabled in the [[House of Commons of Canada|House of Commons]] (Bill C-393). The bill passed in the Commons on March 9, 2011 (172-111, including support from the [[Bloc Québécois]] and the [[New Democratic Party of Canada|New Democratic Party]], all but two Liberals and 26 Conservatives).<ref>[http://thechronicleherald.ca/TheNovaScotian/1245757.html ] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110601195644/http://thechronicleherald.ca/TheNovaScotian/1245757.html |date=June 1, 2011 }}</ref><ref>[http://thevarsity.ca/articles/45372 ] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709060732/http://thevarsity.ca/articles/45372 |date=July 9, 2011 }}</ref> The bill then stalled in the [[Senate of Canada|Senate]] and died on the [[order paper]] when the government fell.

Part of the challenge in providing medicine to Africa was highlighted by former U.S. President Bill Clinton at a meeting of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations on February 23, 2009. Speaking on Global Health Progress, Clinton stated,<blockquote>... my experience has been that almost no one in the world will die this year because of the cost or the lack of availability of AIDS medicine. But many people will die of  AIDS this year because of the absence of effective health care systems in rural areas of the poorest countries.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSO-00R_62o |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211219/lSO-00R_62o |archive-date=2021-12-19 |url-status=live|title=Bill Clinton on Philanthropy and Global Public Health|work=YouTube|date=24 February 2009 |accessdate=19 September 2014}}{{cbignore}}</ref></blockquote>

== References and notes ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Docid=2331620&file=4 — the full text of the Bill that created the Regime
*http://www.camr-rcam.gc.ca/ — the Canadian government site for the Regime

{{DEFAULTSORT:Canada's Access To Medicines Regime}}
[[Category:Canadian federal legislation]]
[[Category:Foreign relations of Canada]]
[[Category:Canadian patent law]]
[[Category:Pharmaceuticals policy]]
[[Category:2004 in Canadian law]]
[[Category:2004 in international relations]]