Canada Access to Medicines Regime

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The Canada's Access to Medicines Regime, previously called the Jean Chretien Pledge to Africa Act, is a piece of Canadian legislation to amend Canada's Patent Act in order to reflect the changes in intellectual property rules made by the August 30th decision at the World Trade Organization in 2003, specifically those allowing countries with generic pharmaceutical-manufacturing capacity to produce products for developing countries facing health crises. Canada was the first country to amend its laws to correspond to the changes, though now the European Union and Norway have begun their own programs.

Though the law has been in force for over one year, it has yet to be used for its stated purpose: to send cheap drugs overseas. Health Minister Tony Clement in the Conservative government of Stephen Harper admitted this problem at the 2006 International Aids Society conference in Toronto, and promised an expedited investigation into making the program more effective.

Critics have complained that the law in more limited than it needs to be to comply with the TRIPS Agreement, which sets rules intellectual property at the WTO. Specifically, it contains a schedule of eligible drugs that can be manufactured using the bill, when no such limited list is required.