This argues that patents block access to essential drugs and that intellectual-property rights offer few advantages to developing countries.

ECONOMIST: Homeward bound?

In a briefing paper published earlier this year, the WHO said the scheme had achieved a 40% reduction in drug prices and significantly improved the availability of essential drugs.

BBC: India's cheap drug scheme hailed

WHO's Essential Drugs Programme (a worthy attempt to work out a minimum list of the drugs that should be available in every country in the world), describes the organisation as being like a Christmas tree on whose branches new projects are hung at random, frequently without regard to what is there already.

ECONOMIST: Repositioning the WHO

Such an approval is essential for Arcoxia to beat Pharmacia's drugs.

FORBES: Bad News: Merck Withdraws Arcoxia Application

According to Stephen Rosenfeld, a lawyer with the Prescription Access Litigation Project, which has launched a class-action suit against AstraZeneca and Barr Laboratories over Tamoxifen, an anti-cancer drug, delays to generic drugs mean that 42m Americans who lack health insurance pay a high price, and may not get essential medicines at all.

ECONOMIST: Prescription drugs