ECUO report on TRIPS flexibilities in Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine
Analytic report “Implementation of TRIPS-flexibilities to improve access to medicines in Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine” was developed to inform all parties concerned about possible ways of ARV price decreasing and understanding the importance of legislation changes guaranteeing access to ARV.
Summary
This working paper analyzes from access to medicines perspective the landscape and some major issues related to the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement in Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
First, it provides an overview of the main international obligations of states in relation to ensuring access to essential medicines and describes how the situation in the field of intellectual property for pharmaceutical products changed with the adoption of the TRIPS Agreement.
Further, the author describes the public health-related flexibilities contained in the TRIPS Agreement that are important for ensuring balance between patent holders’ rights protection and public health interests. Additionally, the author identifies some frequently used TRIPS-plus provisions that are adopted by some states because of pressure during WTO accession negotiations or bilateral agreements with US or EU, and have negative effect on access to medicines.
After that, the author analyses the legislation of Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine to define what TRIPS flexibilities, TRIPS-plus provisions exist, and how these are transposed by the countries in their domestic laws. Based on the results of analysis the author makes recommendations on how legislations of these countries could be improved within the framework of the TRIPS Agreement to make domestic legal framework on patents and medicines more favorable from access to medicines standpoint.
Source: East Europe and Central Asia Union of PLHIV Organisations (ECUO)
