EU threat to medicine access

Efforts by the European Union to insert strong provisions
on pharmaceutical patents in a series of free trade agreements it is negotiating
could imperil access to medicines in developing countries, global public health
activists have alleged.
As part of trade talks being conducted with India, Colombia, Peru and a regional
grouping in south-east Asia, EU officials have proposed that drug-makers should
benefit from a robust intellectual property regime. National regulatory authorities
in the countries concerned would be prevented for lengthy periods from using data
provided by a company that holds a drug patent in order to authorise a generic
version of that medicine. Link to the article:
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/?p=1835