ABSTRACT
This chapter considers one immense problem which really involves an effective mechanism by which the first world is being massively aided financially by the third. In financial terms the US government calculated that it made a saving of of about US$ 20 000 from each skilled worker who had trained in a third-world country. At the 56th World Health Assembly, organised by the World Health Organization at Geneva in May 2000, Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) centred pivotally in the debate, as delegates argued about the appropriate response to the 'Report by the Secretariat on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health'. The USA submitted a proposal that focused exclusively on the expression of intellectual property rights as the vehicle by which to spur innovation, and failed to make reference to the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS agreement and public health.
