WTO, WHO, WIPO To Discuss TRIPS And Health Declaration

The heads of three international organizations in Geneva will address a meeting next week on the subject of 10 years after the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health. The 23 November symposium at the World Trade Organization, organised by the Graduate Institute in Geneva, involves a range of top officials and experts on the issue.

Details of the symposium are available here.

This is one of several events on the subject of the Doha Declaration taking place in Geneva. Knowledge Ecology International held an event on 14 November, and Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF, Doctors without Borders), will hold an event on 21 November that examines reform of the declaration.

The annual symposium of the Graduate Institute this year will focus on “the future agenda at the interface of public health, innovation and trade” and will be overseen by Ruth Dreifuss, former President of Switzerland and chairperson of the WHO Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health (CIPIH).

Speakers will include World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan, World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy, and World Intellectual Property Organization Director General Francis Gurry. Other expected speakers include: Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS; Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance; David Brennan, president of IFPMA and CEO of AstraZeneca; Ambassador Tom Mboya Okeyo from Kenya; Denis Broun, executive director of UNITAID; as well as researchers such as Frederick Abbott, Brian Tempest and Sudip Chaudhuri. Intellectual Property Watch Director William New will moderate a panel at the event.

TRIPS is the 1994 WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. The 2001 WTO ministerial in Doha, Qatar adopted a declaration on TRIPS and public health that among other things accentuated the flexibilities and discretion available to developing countries in implementing TRIPS rules in relation to public health.