24th May 2006

LATIN AMERICAN HEALTH MINISTERS STRESS LINKS BETWEEN IP AND HEALTH

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On 23 May, health ministers from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela issued a joint declaration on the links between intellectual property (IP) protections, access to medicine and public health, during the annual General Assembly of the World Health Organization in Geneva.

The ministers highlighted the significant increase in costs incurred to government health programmes and to people in general as a result of the rise in the prices of patented essential drugs. They reaffirmed that ensuring access to essential medicines and related raw material was a fundamental responsibility of governments, and an essential part of the basic human right to health.

In the declaration, the ministers committed themselves to implementing the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health, particularly the mechanisms necessary for issuing compulsory licenses and executing the parallel importation of drugs.

Furthermore, the declaration called for greater international cooperation for the promotion of scientific research, technological innovation, and technology transfer, as well as the formation of a joint network for providing technical assistance on issues related to IP and public health.

Finally, the ministers stressed their determination to preserve flexibilities present in the WTO Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in their bilateral and regional free trade pacts, to seek the active participation of health ministries in bilateral trade negotiations, and to arrange capacity building for public health officials on IP and its impacts on access to medicine.

The link between IP and public health is also highlighted at this year’s World Health Assembly in the ongoing discussions on a plan for implementing the recommendations of the recent report by the Commission on IP, Innovation and Public Health. Participants will also consider setting up a working group of interested member states to look at proposals to establish a global framework for supporting research and development.