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THE DRUG DEAL reached by members of the World Trade Organisation last week is but a temporary truce. Countries with conflicting interests have decided to put their differences aside for now, and seek a more permanent solution when negotiations resume to modify the agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights. With agriculture-related issues expected to preoccupy trade ministers at Cancun, progress on TRIPS is some time away. The controversy over TRIPS is largely about trying to find a common ground among WTO members with contrasting aims and capabilities. The agreement was born out of the desire to impose a standard for protection of intellectual property rights. With just a handful of countries endowed with the capability that requires the TRIPS shield, the road ahead is likely to be difficult.

On drugs, India is in a unique position. The decision to recognise only process patents in the early 1970s allowed the domestic pharmaceutical industry to flourish. A number of Indian companies have developed the capability not only to reverse engineer a variety of drugs but also to meet the most stringent quality standards. It is a measure of the progress made by Indian industry that few references are made any longer to the nightmarish scenario of escalating drug prices once the country meets all the WTO obligations by 2005. India remains one of the few developing countries with the capacity to supply nations hit by epidemics with affordable copycat drugs using the compulsory licensing norms specified in the new WTO deal.

Making this privilege permanent is what the WTO has to grapple with. Access to affordable drugs is a critical issue for poor countries, and unless TRIPS can be modified to safeguard all their needs, negative perceptions about WTO among a significant number of people are unlikely to change. The Doha Declaration acknowledged the credibility crisis when it emphasised that TRIPS had to be interpreted in a way that supports public health. As last week's flip-flop on the drugs deal showed, accessibility may not always be in the best interests of companies that hold pharmaceutical patents. Companies such as those in India that manufacture low-cost generic drugs are central to increasing accessibility, but may have to be fenced in with safeguards to protect patent holders. But the safeguards suggested last week — suspended for the moment to arrive at a deal — were so stringent as to raise questions about the viability of exports by generic drugs makers. That in a way could defeat compulsory licensing. Given the sharp differences in positions, the next round of negotiations is destined to be tortuous and bitter. Unless a satisfactory solution is found to the problem of accessibility to drugs, the WTO is likely to be viewed with distrust in large parts of the world.

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