Globalization and Access to Drugs - Health Economics and Drugs Series, No. 007: PART I: GLOBALIZATION AND ACCESS TO DRUGS: IMPLICATIONS OF THE WTO/TRIPS AGREEMENT: 2. Reading the TRIPS Agreement from the perspective of access to drugs: 2.6 Application of the TRIPS Agreement: For least-developed countries: 2006

Globalization and Access to Drugs - Health Economics and Drugs Series, No. 007
(1998; 97 pages) [French] [Spanish]

Índice de contenido

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and acronyms
PART I: GLOBALIZATION AND ACCESS TO DRUGS: IMPLICATIONS OF THE WTO/TRIPS AGREEMENT
	Executive summary
	Introduction
	1. Brief historical background to the international trading system
		1.1 The simultaneous creation of the GATT, the IMF and the World Bank
		1.2 The objectives, nature and functioning of the GATT
			Objectives
			Nature
			Obligations of the contracting parties
			The “Rounds”
		1.3 The Uruguay Round and the creation of the WTO
			The new global economic environment
			Long and difficult negotiations
			The results of the Uruguay Round: strengthening and enlargement of the multilateral trade system
			How does the WTO differ from the GATT?
		1.4 The protection of intellectual property rights before the WTO
	2. Reading the TRIPS Agreement from the perspective of access to drugs
		2.1 General presentation of the Agreement
		2.2 Fundamental principles and objectives of the Agreement: the necessary balance between intellectual property and accessibility
		2.3 Patents for pharmaceutical products and processes available all over the world
		2.4 Non-patentable inventions: biotechnology inventions
		2.5 Effects of protection: a monopoly of working for 20 years
			Attenuation of the monopoly through exhaustion of rights
			Strengthening the monopoly through the patenting of processes
			Extension of the duration of the monopoly
		2.6 Application of the TRIPS Agreement
			For industrialized countries: 1996
			For developing countries: 2000 or 2005
			For least-developed countries: 2006
		2.7 During the transitional period
			Establishment of a “mail-box” in 1995
			Possibility of exclusive marketing rights
			What happens to existing patents?
		2.8 How can the monopoly be limited?
			Exceptions
			Compulsory licences
	3. Conclusions: issues at stake and constraints on access to drugs
		3.1 The drug patents debate
		3.2 Some recommendations
	Definitions and terminology⁴
	Selected bibliography⁵
		GATT/WTO and the TRIPS Agreement
		The TRIPS Agreement and pharmaceutical products
		Country studies
PART II: PRESENTATIONS AT THE AD HOC WORKING GROUP ON THE REVISED DRUG STRATEGY HELD IN GENEVA ON 13 OCTOBER 1998
	1. Speech of the WHO Director-General, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland
	2. World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
	3. World Trade Organization (WTO)
		3.1 Pharmaceutical Patents and the TRIPS Agreement
		3.2 Overview of the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade
	4. South Centre
	5. Health Action International (HAI)
	6. International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations (IFPMA)
	7. International Generic Pharmaceutical Alliance (IGPA)
Other documents in the DAP - Health Economics and Drugs Series
Back cover

For least-developed countries: 2006

Article 66

“1. In view of the special needs and requirements of least-developed country Members, their economic, financial and administrative constraints, and their need for flexibility to create a viable technological base, such Members shall not be required to apply the provisions of this Agreement, other than Articles 3, 4 and 5, for a period of 10 years from the date of application as defined under paragraph 1 of Article 65. The Council for TRIPS shall, upon duly motivated request by a least-developed country Member, accord extensions of this period.

2. Developed country Members shall provide incentives to enterprises and institutions in their territories for the purpose of promoting and encouraging technology transfer to least-developed country Members in order to enable them to create a sound and viable technological base.”

Under Article 66.1, least-developed countries benefit for 10 years after the general one year transition period of 1996, while a showing of hardship may qualify them for further delays. However, they are also affected by the “mailbox” and “exclusive marketing rights” transitional provisions regarding pharmaceuticals.