Africa/Global: More talks needed on TRIPS and health

The TRIPS Council of the WTO, at its meeting last week, was unable to reach agreement on the "permanent solution" to the issue of Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health relating to countries having no or inadequate drug manufacturing capacity. The Council decided to suspend its discussion on the issue and agreed that informal consultations would instead be held in an attempt to find agreement by the deadline of the end of March. The discussions on this issue at the TRIPS Council on 9 March were marked by strong differences in positions between several developing countries and major developed countries.