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5 J. World Intell. Prop. 5 (2002)

handle is hein.journals/jwip5 and id is 1 raw text is: Midicaments sans Frontieres? Clarification of the Relationship between TRIPs and Public Health resulting from the WTo Doha Ministerial Declaration Paul VANDOREN* I. INTRODUCTION On 14 November 2001, the Declaration on the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement and Public Health (see the Annex to this article) was adopted by the one hundred and forty-two Members of the World Trade Organization at the Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar. This important Declaration was the result of many hours of negotiation at the Conference and prior discussion initiated in the Council for TRIPS by the African Group. The value of the Declaration lies in its clarification of the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and public health policies of WTo Members and its definition of the flexibility of several relevant provisions of the TRIPS Agreement, in particular with regard to patents. In addition, the Declaration is evidence that the TRIPS Agreement is not a static instrument laying down international minimum standards of protection exclusively for the benefit of rightholders based in the developed countries, but one capable of reconciling intellectual property with national policies, such as in the area of public health, in particular in developing countries. II. THE NEED FOR A NEW APPROACH IN A NEw ENVIRONMENT Since its adoption at the Uruguay Round in 1994, the TRIPS Agreement had been criticized by developing countries, supported by a number of non-governmental organizations, as being an obstacle to development and to the pursuit of public health policies by developing countries. Discussions culminated in a debate on access to medicines at the time when developing countries were under the obligation to implement the TRIPS Agreement, i.e. as of 1 January 2000. In this context, it was alleged that the patent regime imposed by the TRIPS Agreement, and in particular the * Head of Unit for new technologies, intellectual property and public procurement, Directorate-General for Trade, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium. The views expressed are the author's own and do not necessarily bind the European Commission. He may be contacted at: apaul.vandoren@cec.eu.ints.

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