ISLAMABAD, Aug 29: Pakistan along with other developing countries at Cancun would ask for further relaxation in the WTO rules concerning patents on drugs.

Well-placed sources told Dawn on Friday that the developing countries at Cancun ministerial conference scheduled for September 10-14 would stress upon the developed countries to relax patents rules on drugs meant for prevention, treatment and control especially the vaccines.

They would also ask for scaling down the period of patents to five years from current 20 years to facilitate the developing countries.

Similarly, the relief in the form of compulsory licensing and parallel imports should also be expected to be made part of the final deal at Cancun.

The sources said that the developing countries would also seek the right to import raw materials, and also ask that technical and financial support be provided to them so as to build their capacity in the area of local formulation.

Under Doha Declaration, the TRIPs agreement would be reviewed to afford some relaxation to the developing countries so as to let them secure access to medicines and health care.

For providing relaxation in patent rules to developing countries, the case was sent to the TRIPs council to work out the modalities in this regard, but sources said the council failed to meet the deadline for the reason that US was reluctant to give the required relaxation.