On March 7th, 2018, the paraguayan Congress ratified the Agreement on Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). This Agreement facilitates the import of medicines to the underdeveloped countries that do not count with a pharmaceutical industrial capacity and are members of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Executive branch will now have to enact it.

After years of waiting and becoming one of the last countries to ratify it, Paraguay approved the TRIPS amendment protocol. This ratification makes permanent a temporary benefit that consisted on the possibility of importing generic pharmaceutical products in case of a health emergency to the signatory countries of the WTO, when they lack of their own pharmaceutical industries. It also favors countries with differential tariffs for the importation of pharmaceutical products under any circumstance.

At the same time, the international instrument promotes the technology transfer and capacity building in the pharmaceutical sector in order to overcome the problem faced by countries whose manufacturing capacities in the pharmaceutical sector are insufficient or non-existent.

The amendment modifies the WTO agreement on TRIPS, which has been in effect since 1995, and came into force on January 23, 2017. Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Agency Andean Health Organization (ORAS) recommend countries the ratification of the amendment.