On June 8, the UN General Assembly issued a 17-page “Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS: Intensifying our Efforts to Eliminate HIV/AIDS,” which includes statements related to TRIPS Agreement flexibilities and enforcement of IP.

Paragraph 71 (b) urges countries to “apply measures and procedures for enforcing intellectual property rights in such a manner as to avoid creating barriers to the legitimate trade of medicines, and to provide for safeguards against the abuse of such measures and procedures.”  The document also urges “the use, to the full” of TRIPS flexibilities  available to promote access to medicines.

The full document is HERE.  Excerpts follow:

(35) Recognize the critical importance of affordable medicines, including generics in scaling up access to affordable HIV treatment; and further recognize that protection and enforcement measures for intellectual property rights should be compliant with Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement and should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of the right of Member States to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all; …

…(71) Commit to remove before 2015, where feasible, obstacles that limit the capacity of low- and middle-income countries to provide affordable and effective HIV prevention and treatment products, diagnostics, medicines and commodities and other pharmaceutical products, as well as treatment for opportunistic infections and co-infections, and to reduce costs associated with life-long chronic care, including by amending national laws and regulations, as deemed appropriate by respective Governments, so as to optimize:

(a) The use, to the full, of existing flexibilities under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement specifically geared to promoting access to and trade of medicines, and, while recognizing the importance of the intellectual property rights regime in contributing towards a more effective AIDS response, ensure that intellectual property rights provisions in trade agreements do not undermine these existing flexibilities, as confirmed by the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, and call for early acceptance of the amendment to article 31 of the TRIPS Agreement adopted by the General Council of the World Trade Organization in its decision of 6 December 2005;

(b) Addressing barriers, regulations, policies and practices that prevent access to affordable HIV treatment by promoting generic competition in order to help reduce costs associated with life-long chronic care, and by encouraging all States to apply measures and procedures for enforcing intellectual property rights in such a manner as to avoid creating barriers to the legitimate trade of medicines, and to provide for safeguards against the abuse of such measures and procedures;

(c) Encouraging the voluntary use, where appropriate, of new mechanisms such as partnerships, tiered pricing, open-source sharing of patents and patent pools benefiting all developing countries, including through entities such as the Medicines Patent Pool, to help reduce treatment costs and encourage development of new HIV treatment formulations, including HIV medicines and point-of-care diagnostics, in particular for children;

72. Urge relevant international organizations, upon request and in accordance with their respective mandates, such as, where appropriate, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Trade Organization and the World Health Organization, to provide national Governments of developing countries with technical and capacity-building assistance for the efforts of those Governments to increase access to HIV medicines and treatment, in accordance with the national strategies of each Government, consistent with, and including through the use of, existing flexibilities under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement, as confirmed by the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and
Public Health;