[Ip-health] IP-Watch: WTO Members To Consider Review Of TRIPS Public Health Amendment

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2010/02/11/wto-members-to-consider-review-of=
-trips-public-health-amendment/

<SNIP>

At a TRIPS Council meeting on 27-28 October, members of the African
Group, the Least-Developed Country Group and several other developing
nations including Brazil, Ecuador, India, and Pakistan, said that the
lack of use and the lack of acceptance of the decision was an
indication that there are problems, and asked for a review to figure
out ways to solve those problems (IPW, WTO/TRIPS, 30 October 2009).

But the United States argued that the limited use of the system
indicated countries with no domestic manufacturing capacity were
getting access to medicines via aid, according to the TRIPS Council
report to the WTO General Council in December.

The US objected to a review on grounds that the example of the Canada/
Rwanda shipment indicated the system is usable, but in the end allowed
consensus to go through on the condition that there be only a single
meeting on the issue and that it would have no outcome document except
=93possibly=94 reporting to the TRIPS Council what had been said,
according to the General Council report.



------------------------

11 February 2010
WTO Members To Consider Review Of TRIPS Public Health Amendment
By Kaitlin Mara @ 1:57 am

A waiver to World Trade Organization rules intended to aid people in
poor countries in gaining access to medicines has remained essentially
unused in the over six-and-a-half years since it was put in place. On
Friday, member states of the WTO will in an informal meeting discuss
this situation and see what, if anything, needs be done.

The 2003 waiver was made an amendment in 2005 within the WTO Trade-
Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement to
allow for increased export of medicines made under compulsory
licences. This was intended to give a helping hand to nations without
a domestic pharmaceutical industry, who might have public health needs
for a patented and unaffordable medicine they are unable to produce
themselves.

Under TRIPS, compulsory licences are meant to primarily serve a
national market, but the TRIPS public health amendment (often referred
to as the =93paragraph 6=94 solution referring to the Doha Declaration on
TRIPS and Public Health) allows countries with pharmaceutical
industries to manufacture and export more medicines under a compulsory
licence to countries without them, provided certain conditions are met.

The system has been used exactly once since implementation, to make
two shipments of AIDS medicines to Rwanda in 2008 and 2009. The
Canadian generic drug company involved has said it will not use it
again (IPW, IP Burble, 17 September 2009). The majority of WTO member
states have yet to accept the protocol.

This was =93supposed to be an expeditious solution for public health
needs,=94 one developing country representative told Intellectual
Property Watch. But the =93general feeling is that this is neither
expeditious nor is it a solution.=94

At a TRIPS Council meeting on 27-28 October, members of the African
Group, the Least-Developed Country Group and several other developing
nations including Brazil, Ecuador, India, and Pakistan, said that the
lack of use and the lack of acceptance of the decision was an
indication that there are problems, and asked for a review to figure
out ways to solve those problems (IPW, WTO/TRIPS, 30 October 2009).

But the United States argued that the limited use of the system
indicated countries with no domestic manufacturing capacity were
getting access to medicines via aid, according to the TRIPS Council
report to the WTO General Council in December.

The US objected to a review on grounds that the example of the Canada/
Rwanda shipment indicated the system is usable, but in the end allowed
consensus to go through on the condition that there be only a single
meeting on the issue and that it would have no outcome document except
=93possibly=94 reporting to the TRIPS Council what had been said,
according to the General Council report.

The 12 February gathering is that one informal meeting.

Developing countries are hoping to see a solution as some think public
health is heading in a =93very scary=94 direction in which it is more
exposed to the =93whims and fancies of the pharmaceutical industry.=94
There are strong generic versions of many drugs on the market now, but
the worry is that future drugs - such as much-needed paediatric
formulations or second-line medicines to treat HIV/AIDS - come along
there may be no one with the freedom to manufacture them, said a
developing country delegate.

In a past interview with Intellectual Property Watch, IP and health
expert Ellen =91t Hoen called the paragraph 6 solution an agreement
=93gone wrong,=94 as it is =93based on a case-by-case, drug-by-drug, countr=
y-
by-country process,=94 conditions under a sustainable generics drug
industry cannot be supported.

Meanwhile, there was another informal meeting of the TRIPS Special
Sessions, dedicated to the creation of a mandated international
register for geographical indications (product names associated with
specific places) on wines and spirits on 5 February. This meeting was
a chance for new chair of the Special Sessions, Amb Karen Tan of
Singapore, to meet member states in her new role. She is temporarily
taking over for the previous chair Trevor Clarke of Barbados, who has
joined the World Intellectual Property Organization as an assistant
director general. The General Council of the WTO will elect a new
chair in February.

Kaitlin Mara may be reached at kmara@ip-watch.ch.

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
thiru@keionline.org


Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile: +41 76 508 0997