scholarly journals Montréal Statement on the Human Right to Essential Medicines

2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
THOMAS POGGE
Keyword(s):  
Essential Medicines ◽  
Human Right

The Human Right to Health and Access to Essential Medicines

2020 ◽  
pp. 13-35
Author(s):  
Nicole Hassoun
Keyword(s):  
Good Life ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Essential Medicines ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Basic Equality ◽  
Access To Essential Medicines ◽  
The Right ◽  
Complete Account

Living with untreated AIDS is devastating. Patients often suffer from terrible lesions, pneumonia, and nausea; become emaciated; have seizures; and eventually die. The first chapter argues that there should be an enforceable legal human right to health that includes a right to access essential medicines to treat diseases like AIDS. The chapter does not provide a complete account of the right’s basis; the right may also have to protect our basic equality and dignity, for instance. Nevertheless, it argues that health is necessary for, and partly constitutive of, a minimally good life. Lack of access to essential medicines characteristically undermines individuals’ ability to live such lives. So people should have a human right to health that grounds rights to access essential medicines.

Patents on Drugs: Manufacturing Scarcity or Advancing Health?

2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 621-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bebe Loff ◽  
Mark Heywood
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Patent Law ◽  
Essential Medicines ◽  
Treatment Access ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Major Barrier ◽  
Right To Health Care ◽  
Aids Epidemic ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
The Right

Respect for and promotion of the human rights of people with HIV/AIDS is now an entrenched component of the global response to HIV. However, as the global HIV epidemic has turned into a global AIDS epidemic, and as the death toll mounts, one area of human rights—the right to health care—has become fiercely contested. In particular, the degree to which patents on medicines impede what the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has described as the “human right” of access to essential medicines is receiving close scrutiny. The controversy generated by a recent article that argues, “in Africa patents and patent law are not a major barrier to treatment access in and of themselves,” is indicative of the intensity of the debate.

scholarly journals Availability of essential medicines in Pakistan—A comprehensive document analysis

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. e0253880
Author(s):  
Sunaina Rafi ◽  
Huma Rasheed ◽  
Muhammad Usman ◽  
Hafiz Awais Nawaz ◽  
Syed Muneeb Anjum ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Document Analysis ◽  
Essential Medicines ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Major Barrier ◽  
Registration Status ◽  
Accessible Information ◽  
Other Substances ◽  
Age Appropriate ◽  
On Line ◽  
Remedial Strategies

Introduction Access to essential medicines (EMs) is a basic human right. Non-availability and shortages of EMs are reported for Pakistan but there is insufficient data to define the nature and magnitude of this problem. The current study is designed to systematically analyze the medicines included in the National Essential Medicines List (NEML) for their availability through comprehensive document analysis. Methods An expanded list of medicinal items was developed using the NEML of Pakistan (2018) to enlist individual medicines with their specifications. Registration status of the medicines was searched using three publicly accessible information sources; Pharmaguide 25th Edition, 2018–19, the on-line Drug Information System, and the Mobile Application Pharmapedia followed by a later 3-step validation of the data. The unregistered EMs were then further categorized into three subgroups in accordance with their possible remedial strategies. Findings The 19 studied categories comprised 690 EMs and it was found that 179 (26%) of these EMs don not have a registration status. However, it was also identified that the availability of 47 (26.2%) out of 179 unregistered EMs can be enssured by strengthening compounding services, and prioritizing registration of age-appropriate formulations. Availability of another 39 (21.7%) such medicines can be ensured by revising the NEML or the product registrations for the slight differences in their different specifications. The categories showing high proportion of unregistered medicines included anti-Parkinson’s medicines (100%), antidotes and other substances used in poisoning (60%), diuretics (47%), anticonvulsants/antiepileptics (42%), hormones and other endocrine medicines and contraceptives (38%), medicines for mental and behavioral disorders (30%), anti-infectives (27%), medicines for pain and palliative care (26%), medicines for neonatal care (25%), medicines for diseases of joint (25%), gastrointestinal medicines (24%) and cardiovascular medicines (15%). Conclusion The study shows the absence of registration status of a significant number of EMs in Pakistan. This could be major barrier in their access. Strategies are needed to strengthen the processes of their registration on priority basis.

scholarly journals The Treatment Action Campaign's Quest for Equality in HIV and Health: Learning from and Lessons for the Trade Union Movement

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Heywood
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Mass Movement ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Essential Medicines ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
Treatment Action

<p>The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has been recognised as one of the most effective social movements in post-apartheid South Africa. Among other things, it is responsible for the world’s largest programme to provide anti-retroviral treatment to people with HIV through the public health system. This article looks at the lessons TAC learned from the trade union movement as it sought to build a mass movement of the poor around the human right to access essential medicines for millions of people infected with HIV. It explores how TAC sought to build an alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and its affiliates, and the vital role that an independent COSATU played in supporting AIDS activism and using its social weight to support campaigns for AIDS treatment. Finally it looks at what trade unions can learn from social movements and explains why an effective alliance between unions and social movements is so essential for pro-poor reform in the twenty-first century.</p>

Economic Profit vs. Social Benefit

2021 ◽  
pp. 24-44
Author(s):  
M. Mercedes Galán-Ladero ◽  
M. Ángeles Galán-Ladero
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Social Benefit ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Essential Medicines ◽  
World Health ◽  
Human Right ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
The Right

There is currently a wide-ranging debate on whether it is ethical for pharmaceutical companies to profit and obtain large economic benefits by patenting and controlling the sale of essential medicines that can save thousands of lives, or, on the contrary, whether these medicines should be considered social products and offered at low prices so that anyone, in any country in the world, regardless of their purchasing power, can have access to them. This debate has intensified since health was considered a fundamental human right by the World Health Organization (WHO) and was expressly included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations (specifically, in Goal 3: “Health and Well-Being”). Consequently, the overall objective of this chapter is to reflect on these questions: Should economic interests prevail over social ones in the case of essential life-saving medicines? Should the fundamental right to health prevail over the right granted by a patent? How far should corporate social responsibility (CSR) go in the pharmaceutical industry?

Prescription for the People

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fran Quigley
Keyword(s):  
Pharmaceutical Industry ◽  
Essential Medicines ◽  
Real Problem ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Convincing Argument ◽  
The Core ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
Access To Essential Medicines ◽  
Perceived Complexity

Millions of people around the world face a real problem: their desperate need for affordable medicines clashes with the core business model of the powerful pharmaceutical industry. In response, patients and activists are aiming to make all essential medicines affordable by reclaiming medicines as a public good and a human right, instead of a profit-making commodity. Their challenge is made more daunting by the perceived complexity of the issues surrounding access to essential medicines. “The problem we have is that there are only a handful of people in the world who know what we are taking about,” one leading medicine activist admits. It doesn’t have to be this way. A Prescription for Change diagnoses our medicines problem and prescribes the cure: it delivers a clear and convincing argument for a complete shift in the global and U.S. approach to developing and providing essential medicines—and a primer on how to make that change happen.

Trade Rules, Intellectual Property, and the Right to Health

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Forman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Essential Medicines ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Access To Essential Medicines ◽  
The Right ◽  
Human Rights Standards ◽  
The Impact

In perpetuating and exacerbating restricted access to essential medicines, current trade-related intellectual property rules on medicines may violate core human rights to health and medicines. In this light, their impact on the global disease burden raises serious questions about their necessity, and their justification should be critically assessed from the perspective of human rights standards. These standards require that international trade rules on medicines be justified to the fullest extent possible, and permitted only to the extent to which they can be justified. In this article I explore the impact of trade rules on medicines access, and the growing force of the human right to health. I argue that the limited justification for strong patents in poor countries suggests the need for significant reform of trade-related intellectual property rights. I argue further that human rights standards may offer both normative and practical tools for achieving this reform and for challenging trade rules on medicines at various levels.

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