Pharma patents and Article 31bis: where are we now?

With so many major changes and developments occurring on his very doorstep, the IPKat has rather taken his eye off activities at global level. For example, in August 2003, when this blog was just 10 weeks old, the World Trade Organization (WTO) passed a decision on the Implementation of Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health. This decision called for the establishment of a dedicated page on the WTO website, to make publicly available certain notifications relating to the manufacture and sale of patented drugs for the benefit of some of the world's poorest countries.

In December 2005 this decision was replaced by a fresh one, which would amend TRIPS itself once accepted by two thirds of the TRIPS membership, enacting a new Article 31bis that would formally legitimise the Doha principle while retaining the notification system.

The IPKat recalls that European Union law is itself Doha-compliant. He also understands that the deadline for getting the two-thirds signed up is 31 December 2009, which is only a few short months away. What's the current state of play, he wonders? Can any reader advise?