WTO medicine for poor countries

Thursday, 28 August 2003 12:00 AM

The World Trade Organisation has announced that a deal is being put together to give some of the world's poorest people access to cheap drugs.

The deal, which is between the United States, Brazil, India, South Africa and Kenya, is being put together in Geneva ahead of next month's trade summit in Mexico. It means that poorer countries will be able to import copies of drugs without breaking global patent laws.

These countries have been arguing over plans to make vital medicines more widely available and have come up against opposition from large drug companies such as Pfizer who were concerned that relaxing current rules could lead to western markets being flooded by copycat drugs.

Because of these fears, the deal to provide treatments for diseases such as malaria, Aids and tuberculosis will be dependent on strict safeguards against smuggling.

The deal represents the conclusion of talks between Washington and developing countries that have been going on for months.

Many of the drugs involved are patented, which means they cannot be copied for 20 years. But agreement was achieved after assurances were given that developing countries would not bend the rules for 'commercial objectives'.

The proposals will now be put to the rest of the WTO's 146 members.

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