Agence France Presse
GENEVA, June 20 (AFP) - World Trade Organisation (WTO) members agreed here Wednesday on the need to clarify patent rules to ensure they do not hinder poorer countries from having access to badly-needed drugs.
Thirty-three African nations demanded the special one-day meeting to look at how they could better benefit from the WTO's accord on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS).
The accord, which came into effect in 1995, requires WTO members to introduce patent protection lasting 20 years and has been highly criticised for helping to keep prices of drugs too high for poor countries to afford.
But in the first meeting of its kind at the Geneva-based WTO headquarters, many delegates stressed that the accord already included provisions granting more flexibility to developing countries, a WTO official said.
Many delegates underscored that the TRIPS accord had provisions built in which stated that health was a priority while other considerations take second place, the official told reporters.
But he added: "Everybody who spoke agreed that intellectual property protection is necessary in order to provide an incentive for invention and innovation into pharmaceuticals."
The amount of flexibility contained in the TRIPS accord was at the centre of discussion here, the official said. The meeting was expected to run late into the evening and was attended by many ambassadors, an unusual step for the TRIPS Council, a trade source commented.
The TRIPS accord does contain certain exceptions, allowing governments for instance to issue compulsory licences and allow a competitor to produce a product, or parallel imports of a product.
Both these exceptions apply in the case of health emergencies and if pharmaceutical companies do not market the patented product.
The Geneva-based WTO has itself already acknowledged that the criteria for such government action is vague and in opening remarks Wednesday, WTO Director-General Mike Moore said countries "must feel secure that they can use this flexibility."
Many delegations have called for a declaration to be made at the WTO's ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar, in November to clarify TRIPS accord with respect to access to affordable medicines, the official said.
"Clarification, also for other agreements, is very important so we know what the flexibilities are without risking litigation from private companies or governments," European Union Ambassador Carlo Trojan told reporters.
Claude Burcky, of the US delegation, told the meeting the TRIPS accord "strikes the proper balance" between "stimulating development and commercialisation of new life-saving drugs" and ensuring that "such drugs are available to their citizens."
"We are equally committed to ensure members are able to use the flexibility in the agreement where necessary to meet their health care objectives," Burcky said.
The United States "would raise no objection if members availed themselves of the flexibility afforded by the WTO TRIPS agreement," the US delegate added.
Washington has come under fire from health activists over its complaint before the WTO against Brazil over Brazilian patent laws with regard to its fight against HIV/AIDS.
The case hinges on an article in Brazilian patent law which allows authorities to license a local company to manufacture a product, patented by a foreign company, if the foreign firm does not produce it in the country within three years of getting the patent.
Washington, which has stressed the US focus is not on Brazil's AIDS programme itself, however, complains the Brazilian article discriminates against all imported products and is a protectionist measure.
Brazil's programme has achieved concrete results, with access to drugs having helped halve the number of deaths related to AIDS in the last four years, its delegation at the WTO said.
A moratorium on dispute settlement over the issue is one of seven points called for by about 100 non-governmental organisations to try to make it easier for poor countries to produce generic drugs.
Developed countries had to apply the TRIPS accord from 1996, with most developing countries introducing the rules four years later. The poorest nations have until January 1, 2006 to comply, however, with the possibility of an extension.
As WTO delegates gathered here, up to 40 people carrying a coffin protested in front of WTO headquarters. They carried banners calling for the abolition of intellectual property rights "Wherever it kills", saying "Medicines are not goods".:
