Publication

Access to essential medicines and health technologies is a huge public health challenge. The patent regimes introduced by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights in 1995 and the TRIPS-plus provisions of many bilateral trade agreements are among the challenges to improving this access, as these agreements may reduce access to medicines in developing countries. In the Eastern Mediterranean Region, ministries of health have been little involved in bilateral trade negotiations, yet they are having to deal with the implications of the TRIPS-plus provisions. This publication presents an analysis of the subject from a purely public health perspective