Implications of the Doha Declaration on the Trips Agreement and Public Health - Health Economics and Drugs Series No. 012: Transfer of technology to LDCs

Implications of the Doha Declaration on the Trips Agreement and Public Health - Health Economics and Drugs Series No. 012
(2002; 56 pages) [French] [Spanish]

Table des matières

Foreword
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and acronyms
Executive summary
Introduction
Scope
The role of TRIPS and IPRs
Public health measures
	Option 1
	Option 2
Flexibility in TRIPS
	Interpretation
	Compulsory licences
	Emergency
	Exhaustion
Members with insufficient or no manufacturing capacities
	Addressed problem
	Possible approaches
		(a) Article 31 (f)
		(b) Article 30
		(c) Moratorium
	Safeguards
	Compulsory licence in the importing country
	Economic feasibility
	Legal implementation
Transfer of technology to LDCs
Extension of transitional period for LDCs
Special treatment under TRIPS
Legal status of the Doha Declaration
Issues not covered in the Declaration
Conclusions
Annex 1 - Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health
Annex 2 - Levels of development of pharmaceutical industry, by country
References

Transfer of technology to LDCs

Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health: Paragraph 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.

Paragraph 7 of the Doha Declaration reaffirmed

“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.”

LDCs have repeatedly raised concerns at the Council for TRIPS about the lack of effective action by developed countries to comply with Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement¹⁰⁶.

¹⁰⁶ Also note that paragraph 11.2 of the Implementation Decision adopted on 14 November 2001 states the following: “Reaffirming that the provisions of Article 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement are mandatory, it is agreed that the TRIPS Council shall put in place a mechanism for ensuring the monitoring and full implementation of the obligations in question. To this end, developed-country members shall submit prior to the end of 2002 detailed reports on the functioning in practice of the incentives provided to their enterprises for the transfer of technology in pursuance of their commitments under Article 66.2. These submissions shall be subject to a review in the TRIPS Council and information shall be updated by Members annually”. For information on home country measures encouraging transfer of technology, see IP/C/W/132, Add. 1-7.

Though some developed countries provide different forms of technical assistance on IPR-related issues, LDCs have repeatedly noted that no or little action has been taken by developed countries to specifically implement their obligations under Article 66.2. It remains to be seen whether the reaffirmation in the Doha Declaration of such obligations has a practical impact on developed countries’ actions in this area.

Though the wording in paragraph 7 is broad, its inclusion in the Doha Declaration indicates that effective incentives should be granted in developed countries in order to specifically foster the transfer to LDCs of health-related technologies, including pharmaceutical technologies.