The Doha Declaration
The "Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health" affirmed that "...the TRIPS Agreement can and should be interpreted in a manner supportive of WTO members' right to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all" (para 4). It was signed by all the member of the WTO in 2001 at the Fourth Ministerial Conference in Qatar, and sent a signal that public health should take priority over patent rights. By adopting the Doha Declaration, WTO members acknowledged that patents and prices can be an obstacle to access to medicines.
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By: Toby Adamson/Oxfam |
Further, WTO members recognized in paragraph 6 of the Declaration that poor countries which lack domestic manufacturing capacity would not be able to obtain generics through use of compulsory licensing. These countries are currently able to import generic medicines from other developing countries that have pharmaceutical production capacity. However, they can only do this until 2005. Therefore, after 2006, this source of affordable medicines will dry up. This is because the TRIPS provisions providing for production of generics under compulsory licensing require that the medicines produced are used predominantly in the domestic market (not exported). This is known as the "paragraph 6 problem." TRIPS will limit developing countries that can make generic drugs from selling as much of them to poor countries, which lack the capacity to make their own generic drugs.
As part of the Doha Declaration, trade ministers instructed the TRIPS Council to find a solution to the paragraph 6 problem by the end of 2002. Negotiations were held in Geneva throughout 2002. Rich countries, backtracking on what was promised at Doha, consistently sought to limit the application of any agreed solution. They sought limitations on the diseases to which the solution would apply, and which countries could use it. They also proposed burdensome conditions on importing affordable medicines produced under compulsory license. After acrimonious negotiations, US Trade Representative intransigence led to the breakdown of negotiations in the TRIPS Council on December 20, 2002. Even though all 143 of its WTO trading partners had agreed to a compromise solution, the US alone refused to go along with the deal.