Access to medicines and pharmaceutical patent protection under the TRIPs agreement : a review of literature on the challenges for least developed countries

The creation of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was agreed to by 125 countries (including Bangladesh) on 15 April 1994 at a conference in Marrakesh, Morocco and came into effct on 1 January 1995. The WTO replaced the looser arrangements for the conduct of international trade originally embodied in the Genderal Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of 1947 (GATT). The WTO serves as the governing body of the post-war international trading system and provides a constitution to regulate trade between members.