Globalisation will have an adverse effect on access to drugs as far as developing countries are concerned because when the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement comes into operation in 2005 the prices of drugs for which patents are in place will increase. However, this effect can be reduced if timely steps are taken to aggressively introduce programmes of rational use of drugs and the country enacts legislation to take advantage of the possible safe guards that have been incorporated into the TRIPS Agreement.
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Ranjit Roy Chaudhury is at the National Institute of Immunology, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi 110 067.
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N.K. Gurbani is at the Public Health Training Institute, SMS Hospital Complex, Jaipur 302 004.
