The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights is often said to raise hurdles in the path of developing countries in attaining their public health objectives. One of the concerns has been that the Article 31 of TRIPS is inadequate in allowing issuance of compulsory licenses as a regulatory tool by developing countries for meeting public health requirements. However, a close perusal of the Bilateral Investment Treaties of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh demonstrate how these countries voluntarily accepted more onerous requirements for issuance of compulsory licenses than what exists under the TRIPS agreement. These additional requirements under the Bilateral Investment Treaties have serious and far reaching implications which are not necessarily limited to a bilateral plane.