[1] It represented the first implementation of the TRIPS flexibilities declared in the August 30, 2003 General Council decision of the World Trade Organization.
The bill passed in the Commons on March 9, 2011 (172-111, including support from the Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party, all but two Liberals and 26 Conservatives).
Part of the challenge in providing medicine to Africa was highlighted by former U.S. President Bill Clinton at a meeting of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations on February 23, 2009.
Speaking on Global Health Progress, Clinton stated,... my experience has been that almost no one in the world will die this year because of the cost or the lack of availability of AIDS medicine.
But many people will die of AIDS this year because of the absence of effective health care systems in rural areas of the poorest countries.