"Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Agreement" (TRIPS) and Medicines

In developing countries, until the early 1990s, pharmaceuticals were excluded from patent laws. If they had patent protection on medicines they were usually limited in scope. However, when the WTO created the TRIPS agreement, it meant that the developing countries needed to implement a policy change on pharmaceutical patents to be in compliance with TRIPS.

The TRIPS agreement has been viewed as being favorable to the giant pharmaceutical companies in the rich countries. At the same time, it is viewed by many as being useless and a death sentence to the very existence of people in the poorer countries. Coming into compliance with TRIPS to these poor countries means they will have to spend enormous amount of money for essential life saving drugs that was available for a lower price in the absence of the agreement.

It should be noted that TRIPS does allow minimal exceptions to pharmaceutical patent rights to "safeguard" people living in developing countries. However, when you consider these safeguards in conjunction with economic and political realities worldwide, governments in developing countries are unable to effectively implement these exceptions even when they find the public health of their nation is in jeopardy. Developing countries who choose public health over patent rights constantly find themselves being subjected to intense pressure by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) every step of the way. The most common and feared threat is the threat of bilateral trade sanctions if the developing countries do not adhere to intellectual property (IP) protection demanded by rich countries.