EU offers to help review TRIPs

EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy has said he is prepared to help a review of world intellectual property rights legislation (TRIPs), which is being attacked by some developing countries as restricting their right to licence much-needed medicines. Speaking to a conference in Brussels organised by the charity Oxfam, Lamy said he believed the WTO TRIPs agreement 'provides the requisite flexibility to allow developing countries to reconcile specific policy objectives in areas such as public health...with ipr laws.' But he added, 'If it is felt that there are fundamental problems in implementing this flexibility, the EU is prepared to promote discussion, within the WTO and other relevant organisations, to address and resolve these difficulties.'