Negotiating Health: Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines

Summary

In developing countries, access to affordable medicines for the treatment of diseases such as AIDS and malaria remains a matter of life or death. In Africa, for instance, more than one million children die each year from malaria alone, a figure which could soon be far higher with the extension of patent rules for pharmaceuticals. Previously, access to essential medicines was made possible by the supply of much cheaper generics, manufactured largely by India; from 2005, however, the availability of these drugs is threatened as new WTO rules take effect. Halting the spread of malaria and HIV/AIDS is one of the eight Millennium Goals adopted at the UN Millennium Summit, which makes this a timely and topical book. Informed analysis is provided by internationally renowned contributors who look at the post-2005 world and discuss how action may be taken to ensure that intellectual property regimes are interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive to the right to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Legal Fictions and Public Health * PART I, THE DYNAMICS OF MEDICINAL PATENT POWER * From Paris to Doha: The WTO Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health * The Cycle of Action and Reaction: Developments and Trends in Intellectual Property and Health * Ensuring Access to Medicines in 2005 and Beyond * Role, Perspectives and Challenges of the Generic Pharmaceutical Industry in Latin America * Market Concentration of the Transnational Pharmaceutical Industry and the Generic Industries: Trends on Mergers, Acquisitions and Other Transactions * PART II, ACCESS CONTROL: BEYOND PATENTS TO DATA * Protecting Test Data for Pharmaceutical and Agrochemical Products under Free Trade Agreements * Intellectual Property, Data Exclusivity, Innovation and Market Access * The International Legal Status of Undisclosed Clinical Trial Data: From Private to Public Goods? * Data Protection: Options for Implementation * PART III WAYS FORWARD IN PROMOTING ACCESS * Advancing Public Health by Other Means: Using Competition Policy * Product Development Partnerships on 'Neglected Diseases': Intellectual Property and Improving Access to Pharmaceuticals for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria * Creating and Promoting Domestic Drug Manufacturing Capacities: A Solution for Developing Countries? * Four Practical Measures to Enhance Access to Medical Technologies * Expanding Policy Options for Access to Medicines for

Editor(s) Bio

Pedro Roffe is a senior fellow at ICTSD and director of the TRIPS and Development capacity-building project. Geoff Tansey is an independent writer and consultant. He has worked extensively in developing countries for the Department for International Development, Oxfam and the UN, and was recently appointed a Visionary for a Just and Peaceful World by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. David Vivas-Eugui is Programme Manager at ICTSD and specialises in intellectual property rights.