INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND ACCESS TO DRUGS FOR AIDS TREATMENT IN BRAZIL

Come into effect on January 1 M, 1995, the TRIPS Agreement obliges the WTO Members to recognize the patentability of pharmaceutical products and processes. It forbids the copies made by countries which adopts politics of free distribution of drugs or with low prices. The Agreement has included some flexibilities to protect public health, such as compulsory licenses and parallel imports. Answering sanitary requirements imposed by the AIDS pandemic, the decision of August 30 t h, 2003, introduced new flexibilities to solve the problem related to drug access of the poorest countries. Brazil, which has developed a worldwide recognized program of universal and free access to HIV/AIDS medicines, complied with the international obligations relative to patentability of medicines in 1997, when its industrial property law has been introduced. The country has to conceal sanitary requirements and drug patentability. The analysis of Brazilian's industrial property law shows that the country has adopted paradoxal strategies. Indeed, Brazil has tried to utilize the traditional flexibilities offered by the patents right, limiting the impact of the pharmaceutical patents, but it has not utilized the range of flexibilities of the TRIPS Agreement.