32. The representative of Korea said that, with respect to the scope of diseases covered, the reference in paragraph 1 of the Declaration should be respected. He said that the list was illustrative and that the addition of the term "other epidemics" allowed a certain level of flexibility in determining such cases in the future. At present, he said, work should focus on the diseases mentioned though the flexibility to include other epidemics should be preserved. With respect to product coverage, he said that it should include medicines as well as other materials. In the pharmaceutical sector, production of medicines always included active ingredients and other procedures. He said that such an understanding was effective especially where the patents for active ingredients and other materials needed for production of materials were held by different right holders. Diagnostic kits had a different physical nature from medicines but they should be included too if they were necessary to deal with a national emergency in public health.
33. With respect to beneficiary importing countries, he said that paragraph 6 of the Declaration was drafted to provide a solution to the public health needs of least-developed countries and developing countries and that any solution should necessarily include such countries. On the question of assessment of manufacturing capacity, he said that each Member should be allowed to self-declare. This was because a country that had sufficient manufacturing capacity already had an alternative that was better than that provided under the solution. He supported the development of objective criteria that would guide such self-determination by eligible Members. On the question of eligible supplying Members, he said that he saw no reason to set any ex ante limitation on the scope of supplying Members. The decision whether or not to supply the pharmaceuticals requested should be left to the Member that was approached.
