III 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 241 

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the United States should reaffirm 

the commitments of the United States to the 2001 Doha Declaration 

on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health and to pursuing trade 

policies that promote access to affordable medicines. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 20, 2007 

Mr. BROWN submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 

Committee on Finance 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the United States 

should reaffirm the commitments of the United States 

to the 2001 Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement 

and Public Health and to pursuing trade policies that 

promote access to affordable medicines. 

Whereas the World Trade Organization (WTO) administers 

and enforces the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of 

Intellectual Property Rights (in this preamble referred to 

as ‘‘the TRIPS Agreement’’) to safeguard access to essential drugs; 

Whereas, in 1999, the World Health Assembly, by consensus 

including the United States, adopted Resolution 52.19 on 

the World Health Organization’s Revised Drug Strategy, 

which expressed concern ‘‘about the situation in which 

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•SRES 241 IS 

one third of the world’s population has no guaranteed access to essential drugs, [and] in which new world trade 

agreements may have a negative impact on local manufacturing capacity and the access to and prices of pharmaceuticals in developing countries,’’ and urged member 

states to ‘‘ensure that public health rather than commercial interests have primacy in pharmaceutical and health 

policies and to review their options under’’ the TRIPS 

Agreement; 

Whereas, in 2001, the member states of the WTO, by consensus including the United States, adopted the Doha 

Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, 

in which member states agreed that ‘‘intellectual property 

protection is important for the development of new medicines’’, but also expressed ‘‘concerns about its effects on 

prices’’; 

Whereas the Doha Declaration further states 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’’; 

Whereas Article 31 of the TRIPS Agreement allows each 

member state the flexibility to issue compulsory licences 

which permit the use of the subject matter of a patent, 

and gives member states broad latitude for such use; 

Whereas the World Health Organization’s 2006 Report of the 

Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation 

and Public Health emphasized the need for innovation in 

medical technologies and access to such innovation, and 

the report also— 

(1) states that the Doha Declaration clarifies the 

right of governments to use compulsory licensing as a 

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•SRES 241 IS 

means of resolving tensions that may arise between public health and the protection of intellectual property 

rights, and to determine the grounds for using compulsory licensing; 

(2) recommends that developing countries provide 

for the use of compulsory licensing provisions in legislation as one means to facilitate access to affordable medicines through import or local production; 

(3) recommends that bilateral trade agreements not 

seek to impose obligations to protect intellectual property 

rights that are greater than those required under the 

TRIPS Agreement, because such obligations could potentially reduce access to medicines in developing countries; 

and 

(4) recommends that developing countries should not 

impose restrictions for the use of, or reliance on, data 

from pharmaceutical development tests in ways that 

would exclude fair competition or impede the use of flexibilities built into the TRIPS Agreement, unless such a 

restriction is required for public health reasons; 

Whereas the Governments of Thailand and Brazil have issued 

compulsory licenses to gain access to less expensive 

versions of second-generation anti-retroviral drugs in 

order to treat a much larger number of HIV/AIDS patients; 

Whereas the Government of the United States has recognized 

the right of the Government of Thailand to issue compulsory licenses in accordance with the laws of Thailand and 

the obligations of the Government of Thailand as a member of the WTO; 

Whereas the 2007 ‘‘Special 301’’ Report, the annual review 

of intellectual property rights protection and enforcement 

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conducted by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, elevated Thailand to the Priority Watch List, 

pursuant to section 182 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 

U.S.C. 2242), for reasons including ‘‘indications of a 

weakening of respect for patents, as the Thai Government announced decisions to issue compulsory licenses 

for several patented pharmaceutical products’’; 

Whereas the 2007 ‘‘Special 301’’ Report singled out Brazil 

for having ‘‘at times indicated consideration of the use of 

compulsory licensing on patented pharmaceutical products’’; 

Whereas the 2007 ‘‘Special 301’’ Report cited 21 developing 

countries for ‘‘inadequate’’ intellectual property rights 

protections on pharmaceutical test data; 

Whereas the United States Trade Representative has negotiated or is seeking to complete several bilateral or regional trade agreements with developing countries that 

contain further obligations to protect intellectual property 

rights, including— 

(1) limitations on the grounds for issuing compulsory licenses; 

(2) requirements that countries adopt periods of 

data exclusivity on the scientific evidence used to determine that drugs are safe and effective, which either 

delays the timely entry of generic drugs into the market 

or forces competitors producing generic drugs to invest in 

costly, time-consuming, and redundant clinical trials, including trials that violate ethical rules concerning the 

repetition of experiments on humans; 

(3) extensions of patent terms beyond 20 years; 

(4) linkage between drug registration and assertions 

of patent protection, so that agencies responsible for the 

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regulation of drugs are prohibited from granting marketing approval to a generic version of a medicine if the 

product is covered by a patent; and 

(5) obligations to extend patent protection to minor 

improvements in, or new uses of, older products; and 

Whereas the United States is a user of flexibilities provided 

in the TRIPS Agreement, including the use of involuntary authorizations to use the subject matter of patents 

in a number of important sectors, including medical devices, software, and automobile manufacturing: Now, 

therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the 

2 United States should— 

3 (1) honor the commitments the United States 

4 made in the 2001 World Trade Organization Doha 

5 Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public 

6 Health, which allows member states of the World 

7 Trade Organization to use ‘‘to the full’’ the flexibili8 ties in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspect of 

9 Intellectual Property Rights (in this resolution re10 ferred to as ‘‘the TRIPS Agreement’’) ‘‘to protect 

11 public health and, in particular, to promote access to 

12 medicines for all,’’ including the issuance of compul13 sory licenses on grounds determined by member 

14 states; 

15 (2) not place countries on the ‘‘Special 301’’ 

16 Priority Watch List under section 182 of the Trade 

17 Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2242) for exercising the 

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1 flexibilities on public health provided for in the 

2 TRIPS Agreement, such as issuing compulsory li3 censes to obtain access to generic medicines in ac4 cordance with the Doha Declaration; 

5 (3) not ask trading partners who are developing 

6 nations to adopt measures to protect intellectual 

7 property rights that relate to public health in excess 

8 of protections required in the TRIPS Agreement; 

9 and 

10 (4) support new global norms for promoting 

11 medical research and development that seek to pro12 vide a sustainable basis for a needs-driven essential 

13 health agenda. 

Æ 

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