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.
"I'm HIV positive and diabetic (as well as have high cholesterol) and some of my meds specify taking them with 'high fat foods' which I have to do twice a day. I've eaten as healthy as possible, but when it comes to high fat foods, I am in a quandary...about what to eat sometimes..."
