WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONIP/C/W/202
31 August 2000
(00-3420)
Council for Trade-Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property RightsOriginal:  English
TECHNICAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES:  INFORMATION
FROM OTHER INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
At its meeting of 26-29 June 2000, the Council for TRIPS agreed to invite intergovernmental
organization observers to the Council to update the information on their technical and financial
cooperation activities relevant to the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement.
The present document reproduces the information which has been received from the World
Health Organization on 29 August 2000.
Communications from other intergovernmental organizations will be circulated as addenda to
this document.
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INFORMATION ON TECHNICAL AND FINANCIAL COOPERATION PROGRAMMES,
CARRIED OUT BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ESSENTIAL DRUGS AND MEDICINES
POLICY (EDM), THAT ARE RELEVANT TO THE REVISED DRUG
STRATEGY (RDS) IN THE AREA OF GLOBALIZATION
AND ACCESS TO DRUGS
RDS (resolution WHA52.19) on trade issues
Requests Director General to cooperate with Member States, at their request, and with
international organizations in:
• "monitoring and analysing the pharmaceutical and public health implications…"
• "so that Member States can…develop pharmaceutical and health policies and regulatory
measures …to maximize the positive and mitigate the negative impact…"
WHO policy perspectives on access to drugs:
1. Basic principles and values  – access to health and therefore essential drugs is a human right.
2. Access to essential drugs depends on :  (1) rational selection and use of medicines;
(2) adequate financing;  (3) affordable prices;  and (4) reliable supply systems.  WHO is
working actively, realistically and creatively on all four areas.
3. Market failure in research and development (R&D)  – public involvement and investment
is needed to ensure development of needed ne w drugs for priority health problems, especially
in areas without private investment (neglected diseases).IP/C/W/202
Page 2
4. Purchasing power pricing for newer essential drugs  – for newer essential drugs it is not
acceptable for poor countries and poor populations to pay the same price as the wealthy.  The
poor simply cannot be expected to contribute equally to research, marketing, and shareholder
returns – especially as it is unlikely that the return will be used for R&D for neglected
diseases.
5. WHO and TRIPS safeguards  – essential drugs are a public good and NOT simply just
another commodity.  Patents for pharmaceuticals should be managed in an impartial way,
protecting the interest of the patent holder and safeguarding the basic public health principles.
WHO supports any measure which will improve access to all essential drugs, including
mechanisms to promote competition, such as:  price information;  generic policies;  reducedduties, taxes, mark ups;  parallel imports;  application of WTO/TRIPS safeguards, such as
compulsory licensing, exceptions which can pr omote generic competition (Bolar provisions)
and the extension of the transitional period.
WHO activities on pharmaceuticals and trade issues
1. Policy guidance  – at least 10 publications, DG speeches, briefing papers, and related
documents, including Globalization and Access to Drugs – Perspectives on the WTO/TRIPS
Agreement .
2. Regional and national awareness meetings  – WHO sponsorship or participation in regional,
interregional and national meetings.
3. Country support  – WHO is providing country support on request, such as briefings on the
TRIPS safeguards and advice on the revision of national pharmaceutical legislation(e.g. China, South Africa, Thailand, ASEAN an SADC countries).
Plan of Action 2000-2001
1. Monitoring and analysing the effects of globalization on access to drugs
WTO and the TRIPS Agreement are expected by many observers to have a detrimental effect
on the availability and affordability of essential drugs in developing countries.  However, exact dataon the impact of the agreements are generally unavailable.  The RDS resolution gives WHO the
mandate to analyse the current situation with respect to pharmaceuticals and trade, particularly in
developing countries, and to develop monitoring methods to assess the impact of new trade
agreements on access to essential drugs.
Four key areas to monitor and analyse:
• Degree of transfer of technology
• Increase of research and development
• Evolution of drug prices and budgets
• Evolution of the generic drug markets
1.1 Expert Group  (six to eight persons):  Definition of standard monitoring tools and methods
and identification of selected indicators, to be monitored periodically in the next five years.
Three meetings: 23 and 24 March 2000 at the London School of Economics and Political
Science;
2001 at the Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand;  and
2002 at the National School of Public  Health, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.IP/C/W/202
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1.2 Monitoring and analysing through three WHO collaborating centres (WHO CC) and
other partners:
• WHO CC for Health Economics, Thailand :  Transfer of technology and increase of research
and development.  A Study of the Implications of the WTO TRIPS Agreement for the
Pharmaceutical Industry in Thailand  was published in October 1999.
• WHO CC for Drug Policies, Brazil :  Evolution of drug prices, including AIDS-related drugs.
The publication The WTO TRIPS Agreement and Patent Protection in Brazil:  recent changes and
implications for local production and access to medicines  was published in April 2000.
• WHO CC for Health Economics and Drug Policies, LSE, UK :  Evolution of the generic drug
markets.
• WHO/Public Interest NGO Roundtable process :  Monitoring the impact of TRIPS on essential
drug prices.
1.3 Additional study to support the activities of the three WHO CCs :  Trends in Drug
Patenting:  Case Studies , a study conducted by the University of Buenos Aires (in press).
2. Global guidance to countries
• Guidelines for the integration of the public health perspective into patent legislation .
Integrating Public Health Concerns into Patent Legislation in Developing Countries  was
pre-published in July 2000 (project cosponsored by The Rockefeller Foundation, the South Centreand WHO/EDM).
• Translation of the national legislation on TRIPS and pharmaceutical patents into the
policies of drug regulatory bodies and ministries of health  (ongoing project:  EDM and the
London School of Economics and Political Science).
3. Regional and national awareness meetings:  direct country support
Each country's strategy in regard to globaliza tion in the field of the production, distribution
and use of drugs will have to be incorporated into its National Pharmaceutical Policy, a component of
the National Health Policy.
Direct country support, such as:
• Joint WHO/EDM-UNAIDS-MSF assessment of the patent situation of AIDS-related drugs in
francophone African countries (February 2000)
• At the request of the Chinese Government, EDM mission to provide briefing to Ministry of
Health and Ministry of Trade officials on TRIPS (January 2000)
• Joint WHO/EDM-UNAIDS mission to Thailand to provide technical backup to the continuing
debate in Thailand on HIV/AIDS-related drugs that are under patent protection (February 2000)
• Meeting on the impact of globalization and trade agreements on access to pharmaceuticals,
organized by the ASEAN technical cooperation, with EDM support (May 2000)
• Meeting with Ministers of Health of the Member States of the Southern African Development
Community (South Africa, June 2000)
• Continuation of ongoing EDM support to national comprehensive drug programmes (e.g. Bolivia,
Brazil, South Africa)IP/C/W/202
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4. Information
WHO will continue to disseminate technical information documents, such as:
• WTO:  What's in it for WHO? , WHO/TFHE/95.5
• The Uruguay Round and Health , WHO/SEARO/96
• The Uruguay Round and Drugs , WHO/TFHE/97.1
• Globalization and Access to Drugs – Perspectives on the WTO/TRIPS Agreement ,
WHO/DAP/98.9
• TRIPS and the health sector in the South East Asia Region , WHO/SEARO/98
• Medicines in the new economic environment , WHO/University Carlos III de Madrid
• Essential drugs in the new inte rnational economic environment , Bulletin of the World Health
Organization, 1999
• Globalization, patents and drugs – an annotated bibliography , WHO/EDM/PAR/99.6 (update in
process)
• Joint WHO/UNAIDS document on the impact of the TRIPS Agreement for access to HIV/AIDS-
related drugs in developing countries
• Impact of generic drug policies on the availability and use of pharmaceutical products  (draft)
5. Cooperation with intern ational organizations
• At its meeting of 26 to 29 June 2000, the WTO Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPS) agreed to accord observer status to WHO on an ad hoc basis.  The
observer function will be carried out by Dr. Yasuhiro Suzuki, Executive Director, HTP, with
Dr. Germán Velásquez, EDM as alternate.
• A contact group, including staff from EDM/ WHO, UNAIDS, UNCTAD, WIPO and WTO, has
been set up and will meet regularly on an informal basis to discuss trade-related pharmaceuticalissues and share information.
• A WHO Technical Working Group on Globalization, Health and Trade, that includes staff from
WHO programmes with trade interaction, has been established and meets regularly.
• Close collaboration with public interest NGO's working on globalization and access to essential
drugs, such as MSF, particularly through the roundtable process.
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