November 19, 2007

European Union Adopts WTO Plan for Generic Meds

The European Union has adopted a World Trade Organization (WTO) plan to allow poor countries to import cheaper, generic versions of patented drugs for diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, thus increasing poor people’s access to lifesaving medications (forbes.com/AFX News Limited, 11/19).

“The EU is firmly committed to ensure that in particular the least-developed countries have access to essential medicines at the lowest possible prices, in particular in their fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria,” said European foreign ministers in a statement.

The WTO agreement, reached in December 2005, modified an agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS). However, two thirds of WTO members must ratify it for it to be approved. Before the EU adopted the plan, only a dozen countries had signed on to it, including the U.S., India and Japan.