Panel: Canada's law on global access to affordable medicines

This article provides summaries of the four presentations made during this panel. Tenu Avafia describes the evolution of international agreements concerning intellectual property rights, which formed the basis of Canada's Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR). Cailin Morrison describes how the CAMR works, outlines the limitations of the CAMR, and discusses recent attempts to reform the CAMR. Bruce Clark, whose company, Apotex Inc. has provided a generic ARV drug to Rwanda under the only compulsory licence issued to date under the CAMR, discusses the challenges of the current CAMR and outlines what improvements are required. Finally, Jillian Clare Kohler describes recent development in India, which amended its patent law in 2005, and how this relates to what is happening with the CAMR.