E-DRUG: actual Doha TRIPS&public health declaration
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[several people asked for the actual Doha text on TRIPS and public
health.
Here it is. NN]
DECLARATION ON THE TRIPS AGREEMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH
1. We recognize the gravity of the public health problems
afflicting many developing and least-developed countries, especially
those resulting from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other
epidemics.
2. We stress the need for the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) to be part
of the wider national and international action to address these
problems.
3. We recognize that intellectual property protection is
important for the development of new medicines. We also recognize the
concerns about its effects on prices.
4. We agree that the TRIPS Agreement does not and should not
prevent Members from taking measures to protect public health.
Accordingly, while reiterating our commitment to the TRIPS Agreement,
we affirm that the Agreement can and should be interpreted and
implemented in a manner supportive of WTO Members' right to protect
public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for
all.
In this connection, we reaffirm the right of WTO Members
to use, to the full, the provisions in the TRIPS Agreement, which
provide flexibility for this purpose.
5. Accordingly and in the light of paragraph 4 above,
while maintaining our commitments in the TRIPS Agreement, we recognize
that these flexibilities include:
(a) In applying the customary rules of interpretation of
public international law, each provision of the TRIPS Agreement shall
be read in the light of the object and purpose of the Agreement as
expressed, in particular, in its objectives and principles.
(b) Each Member has the right to grant compulsory licences
and the freedom to determine the grounds upon which such licences are
granted.
(c) Each Member has the right to determine what
constitutes a national emergency or other circumstances of extreme
urgency, it being understood that public health crises, including
those relating to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics,
can represent a national emergency or other circumstances of extreme
urgency.
(d) The effect of the provisions in the TRIPS Agreement
that are relevant to the exhaustion of intellectual property rights is
to leave each Member free to establish its own regime for such
exhaustion without challenge, subject to the MFN and national
treatment provisions of Articles 3 and 4.
6. We recognize that WTO Members with insufficient or no
manufacturing capacities in the pharmaceutical sector could face
difficulties in making effective use of compulsory licensing under the
TRIPS Agreement. We instruct the Council for TRIPS to find an
expeditious solution to this problem and to report to the General
Council before the end of 2002.
7. We reaffirm the commitment of developed-country Members to
provide incentives to their enterprises and institutions to promote
and encourage technology transfer to least-developed country Members
pursuant to Article 66.2. We also agree that the least-developed
country Members will not be obliged, with respect to pharmaceutical
products, to implement or apply Sections 5 and 7 of Part II of the
TRIPS Agreement or to enforce rights provided for under these Sections
until 1 January 2016, without prejudice to the right of
least-developed country Members to seek other extensions of the
transition periods as provided for in Article 66.1 of the TRIPS
Agreement. We instruct the Council for TRIPS to take the necessary
action to give effect to this pursuant to Article 66.1 of the TRIPS
Agreement.
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