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3 Chi. J. Int'l L. 27 (2002)
TRIPS, Pharmaceutical Patents, and Access to Essential Medicines: A Long Way from Seattle to Doha

handle is hein.journals/cjil3 and id is 33 raw text is: TRIPS, Pharmaceutical Patents, and Access to Essential Medicines: A Long Way From Seattle to Doha Ellen 't Hoen* I. INTRODUCTION Infectious diseases kill over 10 million people each year, more than 90 percent of whom are in the developing world.' The leading causes of illness and death in Africa, Asia, and South America-regions that account for four-fifths of the world's population-are HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, malaria, and tuberculosis. In particular, the magnitude of the AIDS crisis has drawn attention to the fact that millions of people in the developing world do not have access to the medicines that are needed to treat disease or alleviate suffering. Each day, dose to eight thousand people die of AIDS in the developing world.2 The reasons for the lack of access to essential medicines are manifold, but in many cases the high prices of drugs are a barrier to needed treatments. Prohibitive drug prices are often the result of strong intellectual property protection. Governments in developing countries that attempt to bring the price of medicines down have come under pressure from industrialized countries and the multinational pharmaceutical industry. The World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS or Agreement), which sets out the minimum standards for the protection of intellectual property, including patents for pharmaceuticals, has come under fierce criticism because of the effects that increased levels of patent protection will have on drug prices. While TRIPS does Ellen 't Hoen is Coordinator of the Globalisation Project of M~decins sans Fronti~res (MSF) Access to Essential Medicines Campaign. She holds a master's degree in law from the University of Amsterdam. The author wishes to thank Ms. Que Mai Do for her assistance in preparing the manuscript. 1. World Health Organization, The World Healtb Report 2001, 144 (WHO 2000). 2. See UNAIDS, Report on the Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic 125, 129, 133 (UNAIDS 2000), available online at <http://wvww.unaids.org/epidemicjupdare/report/EpLreport.pdf> (visited Mar 24, 2002) (outlining the statistics utilized to reach the generally recognized figure of eight thousand deaths per day due to AIDS in the developing world).

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