Rwanda is First to Use WTO Paragraph 6 System

Yesterday Rwanda became the first country to notify the World Trade Organisation (WTO) under the 30 August 2003 decision.

The 30 August 2003 decision implemented Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health. The decision addressed the public health needs of countries with no capacity to manufacture under a compulsory licence. The decision created a mechanism for such countries to import cheaper generics made under compulsory licensing elsewhere - the "Paragraph 6 System" or "Paragraph 6 Solution". A permanent amendment to TRIPS was agreed 6 December 2005 in Article 31 bis, but as yet only 7 countries have accepted the amendment (or just 4.7% of the membership): United States, Switzerland, El Salvador, Republic of Korea, Norway, India and the Philippines.

Rwanda has notified the WTO of the proposed importation of HIV/AIDS medicine manufactured in Canada in yesterday's submission IP/N/9/RWA/1. Under Paragraph 2(a), the details of proposed importation by an eligible country are to be notified:

"Based on Rwanda's present evaluation of its public health needs, we expect to import during the next two years 260,000 packs of TriAvir, a fixed-dose combination of Zidovudine, Lamivudine and Nevirapine manufactured in Canada by Apotex, Inc. However, because it is not possible to predict with certainty the extent of the country's public health needs, we reserve the right to modify the foregoing estimate as necessary or appropriate."
However, as a least-developed country, Rwanda is not obliged to notify the desire to be an "eligible importing member" (Paragraph 1(b)).

The move has been described as "a bold step" amid suggestions that there is reluctance to utilise the flexibility of the Paragraph 6 System because of the restrictive and limited scope of the system.

More information is available on the WTO dedicated web page for the 30 August 2003 decision.
Rwanda is First to Use WTO Paragraph 6 System Rwanda is First to Use WTO Paragraph 6 System Reviewed by Johanna Gibson on Friday, July 20, 2007 Rating: 5

No comments:

All comments must be moderated by a member of the IPKat team before they appear on the blog. Comments will not be allowed if the contravene the IPKat policy that readers' comments should not be obscene or defamatory; they should not consist of ad hominem attacks on members of the blog team or other comment-posters and they should make a constructive contribution to the discussion of the post on which they purport to comment.

It is also the IPKat policy that comments should not be made completely anonymously, and users should use a consistent name or pseudonym (which should not itself be defamatory or obscene, or that of another real person), either in the "identity" field, or at the beginning of the comment. Current practice is to, however, allow a limited number of comments that contravene this policy, provided that the comment has a high degree of relevance and the comment chain does not become too difficult to follow.

Learn more here: http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/p/want-to-complain.html

Powered by Blogger.