(20 Jun 2001)
1. World Trade Organisation sign and group of protesters in front of building
2. Various of demonstrators carrying coffin covered by black flag
3. Police in body armour
4. Director of WTO, Mike Moore, leaving building
5. Various of demonstrators
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Adrian Otten, Director of TRIPS (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement)
"Now in terms of where this process is going, I should make it clear that this is seen by our members as the beginning of a process, which will take some time to yield concrete results. Clearly many of our members see the Doha ministerial, coming up in November, as an important step in this process and they would like to see some kind of, at least political, statements made in the declaration, on this subject."
7. Various of session of WTO delegates meeting on TRIPS
8. News conference by EU representative Carlo Trojan
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Carlo Trojan, EU representative
"It is quite an extraordinary fact that we have a TRIPS council that for the first ever time is completely devoted to the linkage between intellectual property and health."
10. Cutaway
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Carlo Trojan, EU representative
"Each of us - and there's a consensus, I would say, amongst the membership - is of the opinion that the TRIPS agreement should be part of the solution of the problem and not part of the problem."
12. Cutaway
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Carlo Trojan, EU representative
"Everybody agrees that HIV/AIDS is a matter of extreme urgency, so that you can wave some of the procedural guarantees, which are inscribed in article 31, like that you don't need to go first for voluntary licensing. So we do consider the flexibilities are already there."
14. News conference
STORYLINE:
Protesters picketed the World Trade Organisation headquarters in Geneva on Wednesday as the organisation held a special session to discuss the availability of affordable drugs for treating HIV.
The WTO is facing increasing accusations that its Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) makes essential drugs far too expensive for developing countries.
The rules give 20-year patent protection for drugs.
The 1994 agreement tried to balance the interests of pharmaceutical companies and those of developing countries, unable to afford expensive drugs to fight illnesses such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
A clause in the agreement allows members to suspend patent rules in times of emergency.
However, this is open to interpretation.
African nations in the 141-country WTO have been pushing for greater flexibility.
Campaigners claim the rules are stacked in favour of rich countries and their drug lobbies and used to undermine budding low cost producers in countries like India or Brazil.
Aid agencies say pharmaceutical companies are ignoring the misery of sufferers, with prices for the drugs well beyond the reach of most in developing countries.
They claim the cocktail of AIDS drugs should be available in poor countries for as little as 200 US dollars per year.
At the moment, it costs more than one-thousand dollars.
In rich countries, it can cost up to 15-thousand dollars.
After coming under pressure, some pharmaceutical groups recently cut prices, sometimes under to less than the drugs cost to produce, to provide HIV and AIDS medication that few African countries could previously afford.
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