WTO DIRECTOR-GENERAL Pascal Lamy, at the launch of the joint WTO-WHO-WIPO study “Promoting Access to Medical Technologies and Innovation” yester, said that “coherence between health policies, intellectual property rules and trade policy is key to finding sustainable solutions to access to medicines and medical technologies.” He added that “this study is one of the many bridges WTO has constructed with other international organizations during my tenure.”

He said, "Today marks the launch of a landmark publication which exemplifies the active programme of technical co-operation and dialogue between the three partners. Let me begin by retracing some of the steps that led us to today’s event. In 2001, trade ministers did something entirely unprecedented. The dimensions had become clear of the catastrophic impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic which was ravaging the world’s poorest populations. WTO ministers turned to the question of public health, and its interplay with intellectual property law and policy - producing the “Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health”.