EU plan could break deadlock on TRIPS

The EU has launched a plan to break the World Trade Organisation deadlock over changes to its TRIPS regime (trade related aspects of intellectual property rights), which would allow developing countries to license imported generic drugs in emergencies, while protecting the global pharmaceutical sector.

Brussels' proposals would enable a foreign supplier to fill orders based on a compulsory licence, which could be issued by a poor country government in specified circumstances. Said EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy: 'We must find a solution to the problems faced by developing countries that are entitled to emergency access to medicines to combat killer diseases, but don't have the means to produce them locally.'

The right of WTO members to license local production of a drug for health emergencies has already been accepted, but the EU wants to help countries where domestic pharmaceutical production cannot cope with such demands. Its proposal would add a paragraph to TRIPS‚ Article 31, allowing emergency imports.