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WHA blocks US efforts to dilute WTO`s Doha declaration
New Delhi, May 30: In a victory for India and other developing countries, the World Health Assembly has blocked US efforts to dilute WTO`s Doha declaration on TRIPS and public health which provides for access to medicine at affordable prices.
New Delhi, May 30: In a victory for India and other developing countries, the World Health Assembly has blocked US efforts to dilute WTO's Doha declaration on TRIPS and public health which provides for access to medicine at affordable prices.
"India's effective intervention, several rounds of dialogue and working groups led to the viewpoint of public health getting supremacy over trade being accepted," Health Minister Sushma Swaraj told reporters here today after attending the World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva.
Describing the meeting as "very successful from India's point of view," she said the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) had also been adopted by the WHA without dilution.
On the contentious TRIPS agreement, there were two resolutions from US and Brazil, she said.
According to the provisions, a country can take measures to make lifesaving essential medicines affordable even after TRIPS comes under force. Sovereign governments will decide the issue of public health, she said.
Patented drugs can be manufactured through a provision of compulsory licensing, she said adding for this, a government needs to take permission from the director-general, WHO.
She recalled that at the WTO meet in Doha, all commerce ministers had agreed that public health should have supremacy over trade, a stand which the US wanted to dilute.
Asked whether the drug manufacturers had responded to this proposal, she said public health should be a concern for all and hoped the reaction would be favourable.
Bureau Report
Describing the meeting as "very successful from India's point of view," she said the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) had also been adopted by the WHA without dilution.
On the contentious TRIPS agreement, there were two resolutions from US and Brazil, she said.
According to the provisions, a country can take measures to make lifesaving essential medicines affordable even after TRIPS comes under force. Sovereign governments will decide the issue of public health, she said.
Patented drugs can be manufactured through a provision of compulsory licensing, she said adding for this, a government needs to take permission from the director-general, WHO.
She recalled that at the WTO meet in Doha, all commerce ministers had agreed that public health should have supremacy over trade, a stand which the US wanted to dilute.
Asked whether the drug manufacturers had responded to this proposal, she said public health should be a concern for all and hoped the reaction would be favourable.
Bureau Report