Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to extend the waiver of intellectual property rights regime for pharmaceuticals sector by another 15 years in the interest of the least developed countries. <br/><br/>Addressing the inaugural session of the Regional Forum on Intellectual Property Rights for the Policy Makers of the Least Developed Countries of Asia and the Pacific Region in Dhaka today , she said the waiver is due to expire in the year 2016 and an extension of the waiver will help in meeting the primary health care needs in these countries. <br/><br/>She said the waiver has helped Bangladesh achieve phenomenal growth in the pharmaceuticals sector with high quality medicines being exported to over 70 countries, including many LDCs. <br/><br/>She also sought the help of WIPO in securing the patent rights of the jute genome sequence recently unraveled by Bangladesh scientists. Sheikh Hasina also emphasized the need for keeping environment friendly technologies outside the Intellectual Property regime to make them affordable for least developed countries.