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emergency. This is confirmed by the 2001 Doha Declaration of the TRIPS

Agreement and Public Health, Article 5(b), which states that çEach member
has the right to grant compulsory licenses and the freedom to determine the

grounds upon which such licenses are granted.é States can therefore utilize

compulsory licenses to avoid anti-competitive behaviors, support the
technology transfer, and to address overly charged prices for drugs.

After the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement, and the HIV

pandemic spread across the region, many developing nations have successfully

implemented policy tool of compulsory licensing to reduce the prices of HIV

drugs. To raise an example, in 1996, Brazil implements a universal access

policy for ARVs. Such a policy was based upon the production and imports
of generic HIV drugs. When this country acceded to comply with the TRIPS

Agreement, their first-line HIV drugs stayed generic since Brazil did not

retroactively provide patent protection. Even so, the second-line HIV drugs
were granted patent protection, and spending for these drugs created a

significant burden on the government health budget. To cope with this

excessive financial burden, Brazil firstly involved in lengthy price
(27)
negotiations. In 2007, after comprehensive negotiations, a compulsory

license was granted for efavirenz, a significant HIV drug utilized by a third
of those under the HIV treatment in Brazil. The compulsory licensing has

caused a drastic decrease in price of the generic imported form of this
(28)
medicine, from USD$1.60 per dosage to USD$0.45 per dosage. As for

(27)
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Good Practice Guide: Improving Access
To Treatment By Utilizing Public Health Flexibilities In The WTO TRIPS Agreement (United
Nations Development Programme, 2010), 6.
(28)
Ibid.

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