The Legislative Yuan approved the first reading of an amendment to a WTO agreement yesterday, which will allow Taiwanese pharmaceutical companies to make cheaper generic drugs for underdeveloped countries to combat fatal diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and bird flu.
The WTO initiative, called Protocol Amending the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), will make it easier for poorer countries to import cheaper generic drugs made under compulsory licensing if they are unable to manufacture the medicines themselves.
The amendment to TRIPS Article 31 regarding compulsory licensing, which was approved by WTO member states in August 2005, authorizes pharmaceutical companies in WTO countries, if requested, to manufacture and export cheaper generic drugs to least developed countries, without having to pay the patent holders.
“Following the Cabinet’s approval of this amendment last month, the final approval from lawmakers will allow the government to report Taiwan’s TRIPS acceptance to the WTO Secretariat through Taiwan’s mission to WTO in Geneva,” said Wang Mei-hua (王美花), director-general of the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Intellectual Property Office (IPO).
The WTO’s General Council has asked all member nations to obtain approval from their own lawmakers and to notify it no later than Dec. 31 next year. Once two-thirds of members have formally accepted it, the amendment will take effect in those states.
The IPO head said that final approval of the amendment could be settled in about two months.
“At present, 15 of the 151 WTO member states have notified the WTO of their acceptance, including the US, the EU, Japan, China, Australia and South Korea,” she said.
Wang said Taiwan will also have to revise its patent regulations to accommodate the new TRIPS regulations.
“The bureau has drafted a revision of the patent statute, which will also be reviewed by the legislature at some point,” she said.
Wang said that once the legal grounds for the amendment are established, Taiwan would be able to contribute more to the international community, particularly to poor countries that have little or no technological or financial ability to offer advanced medical treatment.
“With its advanced pharmaceutical ability, Taiwan could offer assistance especially to its 23 diplomatic alliances, most of which are underdeveloped countries,” she said.
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
Micron Technology Inc is a driving force pushing the US Congress to pass legislation that would put new export restrictions on equipment its Chinese competitors use to make their chips, according to people familiar with the matter. A US House of Representatives panel yesterday was to vote on the “MATCH Act,” a bill designed to close gaps in restrictions on chipmaking equipment. It would also pressure foreign companies that sell equipment to Chinese chipmaking facilities to align with export curbs on US companies like Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc. The bill targets facilities operated by China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc
SECOND-RATE: Models distilled from US products do not perform the same as the original and undo measures that ensure the systems are neutral, the US’ cable said The US Department of State has ordered a global push to bring attention to what it said are widespread efforts by Chinese companies, including artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek (深度求索), to steal intellectual property from US AI labs, according to a diplomatic cable. The cable, dated Friday and sent to diplomatic and consular posts around the world, instructs diplomatic staff to speak to their foreign counterparts about “concerns over adversaries’ extraction and distillation of US AI models.” Distillation is the process of training smaller AI models using output from larger, more expensive ones to lower the costs of training a powerful new
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings’ planned acquisition of Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations has yet to enter the formal review stage, as regulators await supplementary documents, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said yesterday. Acting FTC Chairman Chen Chih-min (陳志民) told the legislature’s Economics Committee that although Grab submitted its application on March 27, the case has not been officially accepted because required materials remain incomplete. Once the filing is finalized, the FTC would launch a formal probe into the deal, focusing on issues such as cross-shareholding and potential restrictions on market competition, Chen told lawmakers. Grab last month announced that it would acquire
RSS