CONTROVERSIAL proposals to make cheap drugs available to the world’s poorest countries have been backed by the British government. The government also accepts that poor countries get a raw deal from the international patent system, and should be encouraged to set up patent systems to suit their own economic circumstances.
The package of 50 or so radical recommendations unveiled last year (Â鶹´«Ã½, 21 September 2002, p 8) came from the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, an independent panel set up by the Britain’s Department for International Development. Last week, the department accepted the commission’s proposals almost in full,…
