Study On The Public Health Problem Of Developing Countries And The TRIPS Flexibilities

Nowadays many developing countries, including least-developed countries, faceserious public health crises by infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis,and malaria. High pharmaceutical prices, the result of intellectual property systems, isone of the important factors in these crises.Before the adoption of the TRIPS Agreement, countries take different levels ofprotection of intellectual property according to its own historical traditions, culturalbackground, level of economic development. The TRIPS Agreement, whichestablishes minimum standards for the protection of intellectual property, includingpatents for pharmaceuticals, worsened the situation by allowing increased levels ofpatent protection, affecting pharmaceutical prices. Considering the public right andthe preventation of abuse of the patentee, the provisions in the TRIPS Agreementrelated to the terms of the protection of public health. Developing countries wherepatents are in place sought to reduce drug prices via measures accorded by Therelevant provisions of the TRIPS Agreement, but pharmaceutical companies and theUnited States claimed patent infringement. WTO members began to negotiaterevisions to the TRIPS Agreement, eventually resulting in the “Declaration on theTRIPS Agreement and Public Health”,“Implementation of paragraph6of the DohaDeclaration on the TRIPS Agreement and public health” and “Decision on theAmendment on the TRIPS Agreement”.This paper consists of four chapters, including a short introduction and anepilogue:Chapter1, the public health provisions in the TRIPS Agreement and its impacton developing countries, analyzes the specification of the public health provisions inthe TRIPS Agreement. Because of establishes minimum standards for the protectionof intellectual property, the members of the WTO must amend its domestic law to comply with the requirements of the TRIPS Agreement, except the members whocomply with the provisions of the transitional period. The publichealth provisions in the TRIPS Agreement including the pharmaceutical patentsprovisions and the flexibility provisions. The flexibility provisions is extremelyimportant for public health problems in developing countries, play an important rolein the promotion of public health protection and medicines available. Then take"South Africa and pharmaceutical company case" and "Brazil HIV/AIDS preventionand control plan case" for example discusses the influence of the TRIPS Agreementfor the developing countries, and thus lead to the WTO members Thinking anddiscussion of the TRIPS Agreement, eventually resulting in the “Declaration on theTRIPS Agreement and Public Health”,“Implementation of paragraph6of the DohaDeclaration on the TRIPS Agreement and public health” and “Decision on theAmendment on the TRIPS Agreement”.Chapter2, discusses the subsequent development of the TRIPS Agreement,including the “Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health”,“Implementation of paragraph6of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreementand public health” and “Decision on the Amendment on the TRIPS Agreement”.Indicate a clear path for developing countries to protect the public health.Chapter3, discusses the method of solving developing countries public healthproblem in the TRIPS framework Because the TRIPS Agreement has been examinedand revised, those efforts will not be self-executed. The WTO members must amendits domestic law to comply with the requirements of the TRIPS Agreement, the“Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health”,“Implementation ofparagraph6of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and public health” and“Decision on the Amendment on the TRIPS Agreement”. Take Thailand, Zambia andCanada for example. Through the modification of law, protect the developingcountries’ public health, and improve the people’s drug accessibility. But in thesespecific application, there are still problems. With the achievement to solvedeveloping country public health problem is still a long way to go.Chapter4back to our country. Discusses the current intellectual property systemin China related to public health, analyzed the standpoints of legitimacy and the TRIPS Agreement to determine what role the country can play in this issue.