Egypt Ratifies WTO TRIPS Agreement To Provide Access to Essential Drugs

摘要

Egypt has informed the World Trade Organization that it has accepted amendments to the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) that formally incorporate an August 2003 deal on access to essential medicines into the accord.rnIn a notification circulated to WTO members on April 24, Egypt said its government had formally accepted the December 2005 TRIPs protocol. The protocol amends Article 31 (f) of TRIPs, which states that medicines or other patented goods produced under compulsory licensing must be predominantly for the domestic market. This provision effectively limited the ability of countries, that cannot make pharmaceutical products from importing cheaper generics from countries where pharma-ceuticals are patented.