10^th Year Celebration of Doha Public Health Declaration

Access to medicines has seen major improvements in the ten years since the WTO’s adoption of a declaration on intellectual property (IP) rights and public health, according to the heads of the WTO, the World Health Organization, and the World Intellectual Property Organization. However, more work remains if the international community is to find the necessary balance between IP and public health concerns.

The ten-year anniversary of the Doha Ministerial Declaration on TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) and Public Health was the key focus of a 23 November symposium held in Geneva, Switzerland.

The event drew together the heads of the WTO, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), along with representatives from national governments, academia, and civil society.

The Doha Declaration was a political turning point in the way public health is governed globally, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said at the event’s outset.

Since the declaration’s adoption, the perception that intellectual property rights and public health were contradictory objectives has changed, he added.

From compatibility to coherence

One major result of the Doha Declaration has been a shift in focus from the “compatibility” of trade, intellectual property, and public health to objectives the more dynamic and constructive “coherence” between these fields, Lamy said.

Background

The Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health, adopted by trade ministers in 2001, aimed at ensuring that countries could use health-related flexibilities in the TRIPS Agreement, such as compulsory licensing, to ensure greater access to medicines.

The 2001 declaration affirms that “that the TRIPS Agreement can and should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of WTO members’ right to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all.”

It also recognised that countries with insufficient or no manufacturing capacity in the pharmaceutical sector have difficulty in making effective use of compulsory licensing; to that end, the declaration directed the WTO’s TRIPS Council to recommend a solution to this question.

The TRIPS Council solution took the form of an August 2003 decision, introducing an amendment to the WTO TRIPS Agreement. The amendment, however, has yet to be ratified, and has only been used once.