Tripping up in Qatar

The World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference starting on Friday in Doha, Qatar, is due to make decisions on intellectual property that could reduce the power of biopharmaceutical companies to enforce patents and impinge on their ability to maintain regionally segmented pricing.

At issue is the wording of the already existing agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, known as TRIPS, which many countries believe leaves too much room for interpretation (see "TRIPS Thumbnail", A5). While all of the more than 140 member countries of the WTO seem to agree that IP protection is crucial for the creation of new drugs and therapies, there is ambiguity about the flexibility of the treaty, especially with respect to compulsory licensing and parallel imports. ...