Correspondence: Pascal Lamy, WTO, 154 rue Lausanne, 1211 Geneva 21, Switzerland

¹is Director-General of the World Trade Organisation. He holds degrees from the Ecole des Hautes Études Commerciales, the Institut d'Etudes Politiques and the Ecole Nationale d'Administration. He began his career in the French civil service at the Inspection Générale des finances and at the Treasury. He then became an advisor to the Finance Minister Jacques Delors, and subsequently to Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy. In Brussels from 1985 to 1994, he was chief of staff for the President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, and his representative as Sherpa in the G7. In November 1994, he joined the team in charge of rescuing Credit Lyonnais, and later became its CEO until its privatisation in 1999. Between 1999 and 2004, he was Commissioner for Trade at the European Commission under Romano Prodi.

Received 12 March 2009; Revised 12 March 2009.

Abstract

This paper is the written version of the key opening address to the eleventh International Generic Pharmaceutical Alliance Annual Conference that took place in Geneva, Switzerland on 9–10 December 2008 as submitted by the office of Mr Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation.