New deal from the World Trade Organisation

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7415.571

BMJ 2003;327:571-572 (13 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7415.571

Editorial

New deal from the World Trade Organisation

May not provide essential medicines for poor countries

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

On 30 August 2003 the World Trade Organisation (WTO) announcedthat it had resolved the issue of giving poor countries "accessto essential medicines" without breaching its own law on intellectualproperty. The WTO's 1994 agreement on trade related aspectsof intellectual property, TRIPS, makes 20 year patent protectionmandatory, allowing drug companies to charge monopoly pricesfor essential medicines. TRIPS has built-in measures that allowcountries to over-ride patent protection for public health purposesbut since 2001, WTO members have been trying to reach agreementabout what this flexibility means in practice. Argument hascentred on the question of "compulsory licensing," which allowscountries to over-ride patents and manufacture cheaper genericversions, and the extent to which producers of generic drugscan export to poor countries that have insufficient manufacturingcapacity, without the risk of trade courts imposing trade sanctions.