Issues Related to Equitable Access to Medicines: A Patent Law Perspective

Abstract

Striking an essential balance between Intellectual Property protection and the protection of health by ensuring equitable access to medicines has always been an important point of consideration. The rationale for providing Intellectual Property protection is to incentivize the innovator for successful research and development and recoup the initial financial investments made in order to innovate the drug. As per the economic theory, denial of patent protection to the innovators of pharmaceutical products will discourage them from investing further and innovating drugs in order to treat diseases. This will ultimately affect the standard of health care worldwide in the long run. Whereas, providing patent protection for pharmaceutical innovations also acts as an impediment to equitable access to medicines. The essential drugs that are protected by patents are priced very high. This means they are not affordable to the developing and least-developed countries which lack resources to provide for equitable distribution of medicines and support health care. Therefore, to improve the access to medicines, there have been ‘flexibilities’ introduced in the international Intellectual Property conventions through compulsory licensing and parallel importation. But even so, there exist limitations in the practical implementation of these flexibilities in developing and least developed nations. So, in this regard, the challenge exists in striking a balance between incentivizing the innovator and ensuring equitable access to medicines at affordable prices.