Rwanda and the Doha exception 

The wonderful IPKat reports that Rwanda has become the first country to notify the WTO that it wishes to import HIV/AIDS medicines made under a compulsory licence in Canada.

The TRIPS Agreement includes exceptions (or compulsory licences) to patent rights in the interests of public health.  Which is all well and good if you are a very big economy or have a sufficiently developed economy that your country can produce modern complex pharmaceuticals.

If not, the exception was not much help.

Enter the Doha Declaration which at the least was designed to permit Developing and Least-Developed Countries to import generic versions of HIV/AIDS drugs under compulsory licence.  (By limiting this "purpose" just to HIV/AIDS medicines, I am just dealing with the present subject matter; the scope of the declaration has been a matter of acrimonious dispute between (at least) the Developing and Least-Developed Countries on one hand and the country formerly known as The Great Satan on the other.)

IPKat here; TRIPS article 27.2 here; para 17 of the Ministerial Declaration at Doha;  the Doha Declaration, 30 Agust 2003 decision and the most recent Protocol.

As part of the Intellectual Property Laws Amendment Act 2006 (Cth), Australia did amend its patent laws to allow an exemption to infringement for the purposes of obtaining a relevant regulatory approval in another country (but only if the Australian pharmaceutical patent had been extended) see s 119A.  

This would not be much help for someone hoping to export products to Rwanda once the regulatory approval had been obtained.  DFAT, however, is holding consultations in relation to Australia's possible accession to the latest Protocol here (scroll to Intellectual Property) and here.