European Commission supports indefinite exemption for LDCs from WTO IP rules for pharmaceuticals
In a closely watched announcement, the European Commission issued a press release on Thursday, 10 September 2015 supporting the indefinite exemption for least developing country Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) from TRIPS obligations on pharmaceutical products. These TRIPS obligations include pharmaceutical patents, pharmaceutical test data protection, exclusive marketing rights and the mailbox provisions.
The LDC Group, in their February 2015 submission to the WTO TRIPS Council, requested the following: