United Press International - Wednesday, 20 June 2001
John Zarocostas

"Members must affirm that the TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) agreement does not stand in the way of urgently needed solutions to the deepening health crisis," said Tadeous Chifamba, the Zimbabwe representative, speaking on behalf of the African group of nations.

On the eve of the special WTO session, more than 120 non-governmental organizations, including Oxfam and Nobel Prize winner M decins Sans Fronti res, said in a statement that protecting people's health and saving their lives "must take precedence over the strict protection of intellectual property and the very high profits which drug companies get from this."

Under present guidelines, most WTO countries are required to protect international drug patents for 20 years, making the production of inexpensive medications a violation of rules. If followed, these WTO regulations have meant that poor nations have paid the price set by manufactures, which is often high.

Reflecting the concerns of the non-governmental organizations, developing nations from Africa, Asia and Latin America made the case that the WTO accord governing TRIPS does not in any way undermine the legitimate rights of WTO members to formulate their own public health policies and prevent the manufacture of inexpensive, needed medications.

The African group proposed that a special declaration on TRIPS and access to medicines should be made during the WTO Ministerial Conference in Qatar in November "affirming that nothing in the TRIPS agreement should prevent members from taking measures to protect public health."

Major industrial powers led by the United States, and backed by Japan, the European Union and Switzerland, while stressing the importance of a flexible and compassionate response to the concerns of developing nations on access to drugs to combat HIV/AIDS, and other diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, also emphasized that initiatives in this domain should ensure the patent protections are not undermined.

The head of the U.S. delegation, Claude Burlky, said that "strong patent protection is a key element because of the critical role such protection plays in the rapid innovation, development, and commercialization of safe and effective drugs."

Similarly, Japan said, "public health concerns could be accommodated with patent protection of new drugs," and the EU highlighted that intellectual property rights "provide an essential stimulus for creativity and innovation. These rights need to be adequately protected in order to encourage investment in research and development of new medicines, and particularly those targeted at the major communicable diseases."

The U.S. delegate also stressed that WTO members obligations to obtain a compulsory license may be waived in cases of extreme urgency, or other circumstance of extreme urgency where its not possible to negotiate with a patent holder a voluntary license.

"Certainly, epidemics such as HIV/AIDS within a member territory are as much a national emergency or a circumstance of extreme urgency as war, civil strife, or natural disasters for purposes of exercising the waiver authority."

The EU's ambassador to the WTO, Carlo Trojan, told reporters the TRIPS agreement should be part of the solution and not part of the problem, and added that the 15 member countries have an open mind on the way and means to "clarify" but not to modify the TRIPS.

Trojan said he did "not exclude" the possibility in the context of a new round of global trade talks that they might need to amend the rules.

Earlier, Trojan told delegates that Brussels is trying to encourage the pharmaceutical industry "to commit itself to a global tiered pricing system, which is in our view, the most effective way to ensure sustainable supply of affordable medicines to the poorest."

But he said, such a pricing system should not deny members the right to grant compulsory licenses or to authorize parallel imports.

Trojan said they should ensure all tiered priced medicines remain in the countries for which they were destined "and do not pop up in rich country markets."

The ambassador of the Dominican Republic, Federico Cuello Camilo, speaking to reporters said the session reflected the beginning of a general trend to interpret and apply TRIPS rules in a flexible way.
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