Currently, the WTO rules are really in favour of extending the protection of brand-name drugs as much as possible, which poses a problem of accessibility to generic drugs.
For the countries of the south, we can say that the situation has been really catastrophic. Basic medications are becoming extremely difficult to access, which causes illnesses and leads to real tragedies.
This is currently seen with the COVID-19 situation, where two WTO member countries, India and South Africa, have in fact asked that this protection be suspended, so that they can manufacture vaccines themselves and make them accessible to the greatest number of individuals quickly. They do not want to depend on private companies, which are also making considerable profits in this regard.
This is really about disease and the survival of populations. So it's absolutely important that Canada step in and support these two countries so that this can be done as quickly as possible and so that accessibility to vaccines is as widespread as possible.
So we can see how regulation, that is, everything related to intellectual property, is extremely constraining and at the heart of the WTO, but also in other agreements signed by Canada.