Colombia is seeking to renegotiate the terms of its bilateral investment treaty with the UK over concerns the deal favours foreign companies over the state, its trade minister said. The pair struck an agreement in 2014 to foster closer ties that allows either side to cancel after 10 years. “We have decided not to ask for that cancellation, but also stating that we consider a renegotiation to be important,” trade minister Luis Carlos Reyes told the Financial Times.
In April, antitrust and healthcare regulators in Colombia granted a compulsory licence for production of the company’s antiretroviral HIV medicine dolutegravir, which in effect lifted ViiV Healthcare’s patent on the drug. The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington, which is considering the case, has yet to rule on the matter, though the Andean Community’s separate dispute mechanism ruled in favour of Colombia last month.