Brazil’s statement at WTO on the High Level Panel report

Below is the statement of Brazil at the WTO’s TRIPS Council during the discussion on the agenda item on the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel report on access to medicines, held on 8-9 November 2016.


The High Level Panel on Access to Medicines was established to implement one of the recommendations of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law. This Commission, as many will remember, was comprised of eminent authorities and chaired by former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.

This new High Level Panel was co-chaired by the former President of the Swiss Confederation, Ruth Dreifuss, and by the former President of Botswana, Festus Mogae.

Its final report was released last September. Among its recommendations, some are directly related to the TRIPS Agreement. One of these calls for WTO members to commit, at the highest political levels, to respect the letter and the spirit of the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health, refraining from any action that will limit their implementation and use in order to promote access to health technologies. More specifically, it recommends:

  1. WTO Members should make full use of the policy space available in Article 27 of the TRIPS Agreement by adopting and applying rigorous definitions of invention and patentability that curtail the evergreening to ensure that patents are only awarded when genuine innovation has occurred.
  2. Enhanced cooperation among UNCTAD, UNDP, WHO, WIPO and WTO and with other relevant bodies with the requisite expertise to support governments to apply public health-sensitive patentability criteria.
  3. It also recommends these multilateral organizations to strengthen the capacity of patent examiners at both national and regional levels to apply rigorous public health-sensitive standards of patentability taking into account public health needs.
  4. Governments should adopt and implement legislation that facilitates the issuance of compulsory licenses. Such legislation must be designed to effectuate quick, fair, predictable and implementable compulsory licenses for legitimate public health needs, and particularly with regards to essential medicines. The use of compulsory licensing must be based on the provisions found in the Doha Declaration and the grounds for the issuance of compulsory licenses left to the discretion of governments.
  5. Governments and the private sector must refrain from explicit or implicit threats, tactics or strategies that undermine the right of WTO Members to use TRIPS flexibilities.

Brazil has a strong commitment to the improvement of public health in our country and in our region. To increase the bargaining power of governments in the acquisition of essential medicines, Brazil has established, in 2015, a regional system of procurement for these life saving goods. This arrangement, with the participation of most South American countries, is one sort of innovative mechanism aimed at helping countries to cope with high prices of pharmaceuticals.

Engaging in the discussion of recommendations by the High Level Panel might allow members to consider different aspects of the relationship between access to medicines and the Patent System. Brazil is convinced that a balanced and effective IP system would go a long way toward facilitating access to essential medicines without in any way infringing on market principles.

We all know access to medicines is a challenge for most countries, whether least developed, developing or developed. We present these views in a spirit of dialogue, convinced that they are in the interest of everyone, without exception, and encourage the whole Membership to work constructively towards achieving the goal of universal access to medicines.

Brazil understands it is important for the TRIPS Council to pay due attention to the issues and recommendations raised by the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel. We would be most interested in the continuation of the discussion in the next TRIPS Council Session.