[Ip-health] AP story on TRIPS amendment

[Mike Palmedo]

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8EARV8O0.htm?campaign_id=apn_home_down&chan=db

WTO OKs measures to improve drug access

By SAM CAGE
Associated Press
December 6, 2005

DEC. 6 11:43 A.M. ET  World Trade Organization members on Tuesday
approved measures to improve access to cheaper generic versions of
medicines in developing countries.

Changes to the WTO's intellectual property agreement would make
permanent a waiver currently in place and allow poor countries without
their own pharmaceutical manufacturing capacities to import cheaper
copies of patented medicines for humanitarian purposes.

The agreement "confirms once again that members are determined to ensure
the WTO's trading system contributes to humanitarian and development
goals as they prepare for the Hong Kong ministerial conference," said
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy.

Next week's meeting is supposed to set up a conclusion to the current
Doha round of trade talks, which aims to cut trade barriers across a
wide range of sectors and is supposed to address the needs of developing
countries.

"The amendment is designed to match the 2003 waiver as closely as
possible," the WTO said in a statement. "In order to achieve this,
delegations have been involved in intricate legal discussions aimed at
ensuring that the legal meaning and weight, and the hierarchy of
provisions, are preserved as exactly as possible."

WTO members have set Dec. 1, 2007, as a deadline to ratify the
amendment, the organization said. It would need to be approved by
two-thirds of the 148 members. The waiver remains in force until then.

The decision is "a key element in the fight against communicable
diseases," the European Union said in a statement. "Measures like this
that make cheaper drugs available need to be combined with stable and
functioning health care systems and better public awareness of disease
risks through education."

WTO members are eager to reach a deal in Hong Kong, but Lamy's recently
released draft text -- which sets out the basis for negotiations on a
final agreement at the summit -- shows how far members are from agreeing
on critical issues, including the liberalization of trade in farm
products and manufactured goods.

"I am very glad that we have been able to reach agreement on this
important question," EU trade chief Peter Mandelson said, referring to
the agreement on medicines. "The EU has worked hard for this outcome and
welcomes that others have moved to make this possible."