Compulsory licensing and access to drugs - the Rwanda experience by Matthew Royle

Rwanda has recently become the first country to make use of the new compulsory licensing provisions, which are proposed to become article 31bis of the World Trade Organization's Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property rights (TRIPs). Canadian company Apotex has been awarded an export license under the provisions to supply a combination AIDS drugs to satisfy Rwanda's health needs (Marketletters passim). Until now compulsory licenses have been granted for internal use only and so rely on the country's own manufacturing capabilities or supply from countries where no patent is in force. Rwanda and Apotex' success may lead to more use of these provisions.

The law

Article 31 of TRIPs sets out the existing compulsory licensing provisions. The derogation from article 31 for least developed countries does not help where the country has no manufacturing capabilities as, under these provisions, compulsory export licenses cannot be granted to potential suppliers from other countries (who can only obtain these for domestic supply).