Use of Paragraph 6 System for Access to Medicine
North Carolina Journal of International Law & Commercial Regulation, Vol. 36, p. 137, 2010
49 Pages Posted: 9 Aug 2011
Date Written: November 13, 2010
Abstract
The intellectual property protection regime under the TRIPS Agreement raises certain public health concerns regarding access to medicine. However, the TRIPS Agreement includes various flexibilities which may be utilized by its member nations to ameliorate its negative impact on access to medicine. One such flexibility is the Paragraph 6 System. This paper highlights some of the difficulties involved in using the Paragraph 6 System as determined by its first and only use in the trade of Apo-TriAvir® from Canada to Rwanda, and proposes potential revisions that may be made to the Paragraph 6 System or other future legislations implementing the Paragraph 6 System at a national level in order to render the System more effective for use, as well as attempts to provide a realistic view of the impact of intellectual property protection on access to medicine.
Keywords: Paragraph 6 System, TRIPS
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