Revisiting the Trips Regime: Rwanda-Canadian ARV Drug Deal Tests the WTO General Council Decision

Abstract

On 17 July 2007, the world was awakened to Rwanda's notification of the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) that it plans to import the HIV-drug TriAvir from Canada's giant pharmaceuticals company, Apotex. Two months later, Canada issued a compulsory licence allowing Apotex to use nine patented inventions for manufacturing and exporting TriAvir to Rwanda. On 4 October 2007, Canada notified the Council for TRIPS of the compulsory licence. In September 2008, Apotex said it will ship seven million antiretroviral pills to Rwanda to treat 21,000 patients. Against this backdrop, this article uses the Rwandan-Canadian drug deal to examine the utility of the WTO General Council Decision in making ARV drugs more accessible to Low and Middle Income Countries so far. In doing so, the article's analyses rely on the regime of the Canadian Access to Medicines Regime which was enacted after the WTO Decision. The author discusses some of the issues arising from the deal in light of the effectiveness of the General Council Decision in solving the problem of access to antiretroviral drugs within the right to health and HIV/AIDS context. The article also raises questions relating to the willingness of developing countries to take benefit of the TRIPS flexibilities and the obligation of developed countries to ensure that the flexibilities become a reality.