Give Me Your Patents and Your Poor

Generic medicines could ease suffering, but international pact faces national barriers.

In the wake of the World Trade Organization�s agreement earlier this year to allow poor countries to import generic versions of certain on-patent drugs, doubts have surfaced as to the real benefit to countries in need. Skeptics are concerned that the elaborate paperwork required will create a difficult-to-negotiate bureaucracy that is fraught with legal peril.

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