Jamie Leach    

The Doha Declaration

        The Doha Declaration appears to confirms the superiority of public health over trade related aspects of intellectual property rights (T.R.I.P’s), and should have some interpretative value in future world trade organisation (W.T.O) dispute settlement procedures.

        The declaration on the T.R.I.P’s agreement and public health adopted by the W.T.O ministerial conference in November 2001, which confirms that the T.R.I.P’s agreement should be interpreted and implemented so as to protect the public and promote access to medicines for all, marked a divide in international trade demonstrating that a rule based trading system should be compatible with public health interests. The declaration enshrines the principle W.H.O (World Health Organisation) has publicly advocated and advanced over the last four years, namely the reaffirmation of the right of W.T.O members to make full use of the safeguard provisions of the T.R.I.P’s agreement to protect public health and enhance access to medicines.

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        The W.T.O recognised that intellectual property protection is important for the development of new medicines, as well as the concerns about its affects on prices. Also, the declaration enables L.E.D.C’s (Less Economically Developed Countries) to patent and develop new and valuable medicines such as the vaccines for Malaria, T.B and other epidemics including drugs that prevent parents from passing Aids/HIV on to their children.

        Many L.E.D.C’s have a severe problem with Aids/HIV thus, drugs to help contain and eventually one-day cure this disease would be invaluable. For example in Africa five people die every minute from this disease. At present ...

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