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| WTO ministers reach agreement on access to drugs |
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TUE, NOV 13, 2001
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After four days of tense negotiations that often ran late into the night, global trade ministers on Monday were able to give some good news on at least one of the most contentious issues at the ongoing World Trade Organization conference in Doha, Qatar. An agreement was reached on access to life-saving medicines, and a draft text of the declaration on the issue has been finalized.
The draft of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement states that when developing countries are plagued by pandemics like HIV/AIDS, malaria, or tuberculosis, it "should not prevent the members from taking measures to protect public health".
Access to medicines is a major concern for developing countries. Many do not have the ability to produce drugs. Under the current TRIPS agreement, new drugs are patent protected for 20 years. Pharmaceutical companies, mainly in developed nations, can charge exorbitant prices for basic life-saving drugs.
The draft declaration defines the circumstances that warrant the use of flexibility mechanisms in the TRIPS agreement.
Both developing countries and developed countries claimed they were satisfied with the draft. The draft has two major advantages as it defines what are public health problems and at the same time has a "clear reaffirmation" of members' commitments to the TRIPS agreement.
As many delegates put it, the resolution of the TRIPS issue did not point to bright prospects for the five-day ministerial meeting. Except for some progress on anti-dumping, wide gaps remain on agriculture, the environment, and new issues, like labour standards.
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