africa: Protection for the poor, not for patents

In November 2001, WTO members at a ministerial conference in Doha signed up to a 'Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health' which explicitly endorses the right of poorer countries to issue compulsory licences for the manufacture of patent-protected drugs in the face of a threat to public health. Also at the Doha conference, the TRIPS Council was told to find out, by the end of 2002, how a country can get access to generic drugs if it cannot manufacture them itself. At the end of November, talks on this question broke down, primarily because of the unbridgeable gap between the positions of the United States and the developing countries. The Doha 'Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health' calls for the Agreement to be interpreted in a way that promotes progress towards the goal of 'medicines for all'. It remains to be hoped that the industrialised nations will take this call to heart and heed it more fully in future negotiations within the TRIPS Council.