Press Release: EU tables proposals to complete jigsaw on access to essential medicines for developing countries with no drug production of their own

Proposals to ensure access to medicines in developing countries with no domestic drug production were put forward by the EU in Geneva on 5 March 2002 at a meeting of the WTO Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property rights (TRIPS) Council. Following the WTO Ministerial in November 2001 negotiators now need to work out how to make sure that countries, which cannot themselves produce essential drugs, may still fully benefit from the TRIPS Agreement. The EU believes this can be achieved by an amendment to the current TRIPS agreement.