The World Trade Organisation this morning sealed its agreement to allow poor countries to import cheap copies of patented drugs for killer diseases like HIV/Aids, malaria and tuberculosis.
The WTO's supreme General Council in Geneva gave formal approval to an agreement reached by a lower body late on Thursday before it ran into political wrangling that took intensive intervention from governments to resolve.
"This is a historic agreement for the WTO," said director-general Mr Supachai Panitchpakdi.
"The final piece of the jigsaw has fallen into place, allowing poorer countries to make full use of the flexibilities in the WTO's intellectual property rules in order to deal with the diseases that ravage their people," Mr Supachai said.
It was the sixth straight day that the diplomats in the 146-nation body had met in a push to solve their most emotive and high-profile problem.
The representatives had nearly reached a deal by 1 a.m. yesterday after a marathon session but it fell through minutes later. That failure was a surprise, since the same officials earlier accepted the agreement after the United States ended an eight-month holdout.
Negotiators arriving for yesterday afternoon's meeting said the deal stumbled over demands by some countries to make statements before the WTO's General Council formally approves the deal. Those statements can be used to make "reservations," or spell out limits countries will place on their adherence to the accord.
Some developing countries said they would only accept the pact on the understanding that measures to prevent smuggling would not add to the price of the drugs or make it more difficult for needy countries to get them.
The countries also noted that the agreement is supposed to be a short-term fix for a few years. They said they wanted to see work begin quickly to include the deal in the WTO's treaty on intellectual property rights.
The chances for a deal had improved on Thursday when the WTO's intellectual property panel adopted a document letting developing countries ignore some patent rules in importing drugs from cheaper generic manufacturers, along with a statement aiming to calm the fears of US drug companies.
US pharmaceutical research companies were concerned that a deal allowing countries to import generic drugs would be abused by generics manufacturers and could also lead to drugs being smuggled back into rich countries.
To satisfy those concerns, the document was accompanied by the new statement setting out conditions for using the measure.
PA