E-DRUG: EU Commission misleading on the access to generics and WTO decision
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Dear all,
Please find below an EU Commission Press release in which the Commission
urges the EU to accept amendment to WTO Agreement on Intellectual Property
to provide wider access to generic medicine.
The decision of the EU Commission to amend the TRIPs Agreement is based
on a mechanism that has so far failed to prove it can increase access to
medicines despite the fact that is has existed since 2003. The recently
published report of the Commission on Intellectual Property, Innovation
and Public Health ( CIPIH) says "The WTO decision agreed on 30 August
2003, for countries with inadequate manufacturing capacity, has not yet
been used by any importing country. Its effectiveness needs to be kept
under review and appropriate changes considered to achieve a workable
solution, if necessary"." CIPIH Report p.139, recommendation 4.15
(http://www.who.int/intellectualproperty/documents/thereport/en/index.html)
.
This seems to us a much more sensible approach.
Tomorrow a subcommittee of the WHO Executive Board will discuss the report
of the CIPIH
Brussels, 27 April 2006
Commission urges EU to accept amendment to WTO Agreement on Intellectual
Property to provide wider access to generic medicine
The European Commission has today adopted a proposal that European Member
States accept EU ratification of an amendment to the WTO Agreement on
Intellectual Property to allow developing countries to benefit from
exported generic medicines. It is the first time that a core WTO agreement
has been amended. WTO Members agreed on the amendment on 6 December 2005,
just before the WTO Ministerial Conference which took place in Hong Kong
on 13-18 December 2005 (see IP/05/1537). The EU played an important part
in these negotiations. The amendment completes a process that began at the
WTO Ministerial Conference at Doha in 2001 on the WTO Agreement on
Intellectual Property and Public Health. It will make permanent a
provisional decision on compulsory licensing adopted by the WTO on 30
August 2003 (see IP/03/1189). European Member States are expected to today
adopt the necessary changes to EU law to facilitate the implementation of
the WTO TRIPs amendment.
What was agreed in the WTO in December 2005?
On 6 December 2005, the WTO Members agreed to amend the Agreement on
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement).
This amendment would make permanent a provisional decision on compulsory
licensing originally adopted on 30 August 2003. The WTO General Council
has submitted the proposed amendment to the WTO Members for acceptance.
Once accepted and in force, this amendment will complete a process that
began in 2001 with the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public
Health.
The existing rules on intellectual property provide that compulsory
licences can only be authorised predominantly for the supply of the
domestic market. The amendment will allow any WTO Member to export
pharmaceutical products made under compulsory licence for the purpose of
supplying developing countries with no or insufficient manufacturing
capacities in the pharmaceutical sector. The new rules will be formally
incorporated into the TRIPS Agreement. The amendment will take effect for
the Members that have accepted it when two thirds of the WTO Members
accept the amendment. WTO Members have set themselves until 1 December
2007 to do this. The waiver decision remains in force for each Member
until the amendment becomes effective for that Member.
The EC confirms its commitment to facilitate access to medicines for poor
countries
Following the waiver decision of 30 August 2003, the European Parliament
and the EU Council have reached agreement in first reading on a Regulation
on compulsory licensing which will enable the relevant authorities of the
EU Member States to grant compulsory licences for the manufacture of
pharmaceuticals and their export to eligible importing countries. The new
Regulation should be definitively adopted today.
The acceptance of the amendment to the TRIPS Agreement together with the
new Regulation implementing the WTO Decision will confirm the EC
commitment to the process aiming at facilitating access to medicines for
poor countries.
For more information: Peter POWER +32 498 980348 or Stephen ADAMS +32 498
963166.
Alexandra Heumber
Médecins Sans Frontières
Access to Medicines Campaign
EU Advocacy Liaison Officer
C/O MSF-B
Rue Dupré, 94
1090 Brussels
++32 (0) 2 474 75 09 (Dir off)
++ 32 (0) 479 514 900 (Mob)
++ 32 (0) 2 474 75 75 (Fax)