After tense and difficult negotiations, a final agreement has been reached in the WTO on access to medicines.
On Thursday 28 August, the WTO’s 146 members failed to reach a final agreement but the talks continued on Friday 29 August and a compromise was agreed. On 1st September the WTO endorsed the deal to improve access to medicines for developing countries.
All WTO Members have now agreed to the compromise text brokered last December to allow those countries without the capacity to produce their own medicines to import generics.
"With less than two weeks before we meet in Cancun, this is a crucial demonstration that the Doha Development Agenda is more than just fine words.", said EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy.
But NGOs that have been campaigning on the issue such as Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) and Oxfam were critical of the deal and of the pressure put on developing countries to accept a text that limits their ability to source drugs for their populations.
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