A tragically naive Canadian law for tragically neglected global health

Abstract

"I n May 2004 Canada’s Parliament was the first in the world to subscribe to reforms enacted by the World Trade Organization, which promised to bring cheaper medicines to poor, epidemic-ridden developing countries. Parliament passed a new law, setting out an “access to medicines regime” that Canada’s manufacturers of generic drugs could use to override the patents of brand name drugs in order to manufacture and export generic medicines according to the needs of governments and charities in poor countries."