Traditional Medicine in Asia

Protection of traditional systems of medicine, patenting and promotion of medicinal plants
protection of TM should be made. Their
establishment may provide a basis for the
recognition of traditional and indigenous
healers and communities. Nevertheless,
due to the very nature of IPRs, they may
limit rather than increase access to
medicines that are essential to millions of
people in developing countries. A balanced
policy may be based on a restrictive
approach towards the patentability of
naturally occurring products and uses of
existing products, as well as in the
application of strict patentability requirements,
particularly with regard to novelty.
Governments may also adopt
measures to promote the use of TM for the
affordable treatment of national and
regional priority diseases, and may also
seek to preserve and expand export
opportunities for TM products. IPRs
granted in foreign countries may pose
obstacles to such exports, particularly in
countries where patents are granted on the
basis of a criterion on relative novelty.
Some developing countries have
proposed development of international
rules on the IPRs protection of traditional
References
knowledge, including TM, particularly in
order to curb “biopiracy”. Given, however,
the considerable conceptual divergences
still existing on these issues, it does not seem
likely that an international consensus on
the objectives, scope and content of
possible rights to be recognized in relation
to such knowledge will be reached soon.
This is a difficult task at the national level
itself, as evidenced by the small number of
countries that have just started, but not yet
accomplished, the establishment of a
system of protection in this area.
In a scenario in which developing
countries will have to pay more for needed
medicines after the full implementation of
the TRIPS Agreement, what part TM will play
as a component of a public health strategy
has become an urgent and crucial issue.
Governments and the World Health
Organization should be encouraged to
clarify the implications of different policy
options, including the protection under
IPRs, and to define the role that TM is called
upon to play in the health systems of such
countries.
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