New INN Regulation for EU

Council Regulation 129/2007 of 12 February 2007 was published online on the European Commission's Official Journal this morning. This Regulation provides for duty-free treatment for specified pharmaceutical active ingredients bearing an ‘international non-proprietary name’ (INN) from the World Health Organisation and specified products used for the manufacture of finished pharmaceuticals and amending Annex I to Regulation 2658/87. It's 53 pages long and doesn't have much of a storyline, but the recitals make its purpose plain: non-branded pharmaceutical ingredients get duty-free treatment under WTO rules, which makes it cheaper and easier to get them into the hands of people in developing countries whose need is great and whose means are limited.