Analysis of International Patent Protection and Global Public Health

Abstract

The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), governed by the World Trade Organization, provides for stringent patent protection in the name of intellectual property rights. This international agreement has elicited public health concerns in developing countries, worried that they will be unable to access essential medicines as a result of increasing patented drug costs. This paper confirms legitimate attempts to promote global public health and, more specifically, ready access to medicines through ‘flexibilities’ including compulsory licensing and parallel importation, outlined in TRIPS, and reaffirmed in the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health. However, it is determined that, in practice, barriers exist which erode or have the potential to erode the implementation of these flexibilities in developing countries. These include a lack of local production capabilities and technological know-how, lack of economies of scale, needed legislative reform, and pressure from TRIPS-plus bi-lateral and regional agreements. Policy recommendations highlight the need for developing countries to cooperate on regional levels, developed countries to focus foreign aid strategies on building capacity, and for non-state institutions to create more proactive policies to assist implementation and information sharing amongst developing countries.