Huffington Post: Unlikely Allies
Sandeep Kishore, chair of the Advisory Council of the Young Professionals Chronic Disease Network, and Kavitha Kolappa, a psychiatry resident at Massachusetts General/McLean Program

“The recent Executive Board proceedings of the World Health Organization (January 20-25, 2014) provided new ground for unlikely allies South Africa and Australia, as both struggle to temper intellectual property laws in the interest of public health. … Namibia, India, Brazil and several other nations made impassioned statements supporting South Africa and underscoring the need for safeguarding flexibilities enshrined within the 1994 Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. TRIPS flexibilities, which were affirmed by the Doha Declaration in 2001, protect the ability of countries to rely on generic production to provide life-saving medications for their people. … Recalling its fight against the tobacco industry in recent years, Australia too made a statement affirming the value of TRIPS flexibilities. … We hope that all developing and developed countries alike will support the valiant efforts of these two nations in choosing to protect the lives of their people over intellectual property” (2/14).