Corporate Responsibility Report 2008

WTO and the TRIPS Agreement

Intellectual property (IP) rights are protected globally by the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS).

The TRIPS Agreement was signed by all WTO member countries in 1994 and covers all types of IP including patents, copyright and trademarks. It sets minimum standards for IP rights in all WTO member countries.

The Agreement covers all areas of business and society including software, music and the arts, and is designed to encourage innovation in all business sectors.

Developing countries have been given extra time to comply with TRIPS. Some countries, for example India, had until 2005 to introduce patents for pharmaceuticals. The 50 least developed countries of the world, for example Rwanda and Gambia, have until 2016 to comply with the Agreement for pharmaceuticals, and until 2013 for all other sectors.

Patents, TRIPS and access to medicines

There have been concerns that patents and the TRIPS Agreement restrict access to medicines for people in developing countries, by making it difficult for them to obtain cheap generic versions of important drugs such as those used to treat HIV/AIDS. However, the TRIPS Agreement contains a number of public health safeguards that have been clarified by the WTO.

Concerns over TRIPS and access to medicines were addressed in 2001, at the WTO ministerial conference in Doha, when WTO ministers confirmed that IP protection is important for the development of new medicines and that it does not and should not restrict members’ rights to protect public health. They also agreed that the TRIPS Agreement could and should be implemented and interpreted in a way that supports public health and promotes access to medicines.

This understanding was captured in the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health (the Doha Declaration), which confirmed the rights of member countries to use the flexibilities in TRIPS such as compulsory licences to protect public health priorities. Compulsory licensing allows governments to issue a licence so a patented product can be manufactured without the consent of the patent owner.

The WTO members further agreed to modify the TRIPS provisions relating to compulsory licensing in August 2003 so that countries unable to produce pharmaceuticals domestically can import patented products made under compulsory licences abroad. This provision was confirmed as an amendment to the TRIPS agreement by the WTO in December 2005.

GSK supports the Doha Declaration and the agreement on compulsory licensing. We are committed to playing a key role in the access crisis.