The chief of the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) is urging countries to make medicine for HIV/AIDS and other diseases more affordable in the world's poorest countries, without stifling innovation among pharmaceutical companies, according to an Associated Press report. This week, the 193 member nations of WHO are hoping to create a world-wide strategy on controversial issues of drug development, patenting and pricing. World Trade Organization (WTO) rules allow countries to issue "compulsory licenses" which override patents after negotiating with owners for adequate payment. If governments declare a public health emergency, no negotiation is required. Brazil and Thailand have done so to import cheap generic versions of American AIDS and other drugs. However, the international aid group Oxfam reportedly says this rarely occurs because poor nations are pressured by rich governments supporting drug companies. A report last year by Oxfam on drug access reportedly cited WHO statistics showing 74 percent of AIDS medicines under monopoly and 77 percent of Africans without any access to AIDS treatment. Should governments in poor nations or with large pockets of poverty and disease use WTO rules to bypass drug company patents and provide affordable medicine to save millions of lives, even though this lowers drug company profits and might inhibit research and development of drugs that could benefit millions of people in the future?