"[...] In the Council Decision of 30 August 2003, Member States agreed to allow production of pharmaceutical products under compulsory licences for export to developing countries within the terms set out in the Decision. The agreement can be found here and the accompanying General Council Chairperson's statement may be found here.
On the 6 December 2005 Members approved changes to the TRIPS Agreement to reflect this Decision. This new General Council decision means that for the first time a core agreement will be amended.
This important Decision demonstrates that the willingness of Members to ensure the TRIPS Agreement does not prevent Members from taking measures to protect public health.
On 1 December, the European Parliament and the Council agreed a first reading adoption of a Regulation to allow the granting of compulsory licences for export of copies of patented medicines under the Decision.
The Regulation will ensure that all EU Member States have the same standards, thereby minimising the possibility of diversion of the medicines away from their intended recipients within the EU Single Market. The Regulation must now be translated into all the official languages and is ikely to be in force early next year.
The UK is looking at making any necessary changes to national legislation for consistency with the Regulation. This may encompass changes to both patent legislation and medicine licensing and regulatory procedures (these are being taken forward by the Department of Health and the Medicine and Health Products Regulatory Agency). [...]"
UK-PTO: