The global governance of HIV/AIDS: Intellectual property and access to essential medicines

AbstractDespite myriad programs aimed at increasing access to essential medicines in the developing world, the global drug gap persists. This paper focuses on the major legal and political constraints preventing implementation of coordinated global policy solutions – particularly, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and bilateral and regional free trade agreements. We argue that several policy and research routes should be taken to mitigate the restrictive impact of TRIPS and TRIPS-plus rules, including greater use of TRIPS flexibilities, advancement of human rights, and an ethical framework for essential medicines distribution, and a broader campaign that debates the legitimacy of TRIPS and TRIPS-plus standards themselves.

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The People's Vaccine: Intellectual Property, Access to Essential Medicines, and the Coronavirus COVID-19

10.31219/osf.io/sfmnu ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Matthew Rimmer

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Intellectual Property ◽

The United States ◽

Open Science ◽

Essential Medicines ◽

The European Union ◽

Health Crisis ◽

Compulsory Licensing ◽

Public Health Crisis ◽

Access To Essential Medicines

This paper explores intellectual property and access to essential medicines in the context of the coronavirus COVID-19 public health crisis. It considers policy solutions to counteract vaccine nationalism and profiteering by pharmaceutical companies and vaccine developers. This paper considers the campaign for the development of a People's Vaccine led by the People’s Vaccine Alliance, UNAIDS, Oxfam and Public Citizen. The WHO has established the ACT Accelerator in order to boost research, development, and deployment of COVID-19 technologies. However, the operation of COVAX thus far has been falling short of its original ambitions. The Medicines Patent Pool has expanded its jurisdiction to include the sharing of intellectual property related to COVID-19. Meanwhile, Costa Rica has proposed a COVID-19 Technology Access Pool – an idea for a new institutional structure which has been taken up by the WHO. In the context of the coronavirus public health crisis, there has also been discussion of the use of compulsory licensing and crown use to counteract profiteering and anti-competitive behavior. There has been a push by Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) and others for the public licensing of COVID-19 technologies developed with government funding. The Open COVID Pledge has been taken by a number of intellectual property owners. In response to the assertion of proprietary rights in respect of COVID-19 technologies, the open movement has championed the development of Open Science models of science. India and South Africa have put forward a waiver proposal in the TRIPS Council to enable countries to take action in respect of COVID-19 without fear of retribution under trade laws. While the United States has been willing to support a TRIPS Waiver for vaccines, there remain a number of opponents to a TRIPS Waiver – including the European Union, Germany, Japan, and Switzerland. This paper makes the case that international intellectual property law should accommodate a People's Vaccine.

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Trade agreements, intellectual property and access to essential medicines: What future role for the right to health?

The Global Governance of HIV/AIDS ◽

10.4337/9781849804929.00010 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 87-108 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

James Harrison

Keyword(s):

Intellectual Property ◽

Trade Agreements ◽

Right To Health ◽

Essential Medicines ◽

Future Role ◽

Access To Essential Medicines ◽

The Right

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Trade Rules, Intellectual Property, and the Right to Health

Ethics & International Affairs ◽

10.1111/j.1747-7093.2007.000103.x ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 21 (3) ◽

pp. 337-357 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

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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