Patent Protection and Access to Healthcare: A Socio- Legal Perspective

Abstract

It is true that advances in pharmaceutical technology have significantly contributed to improvements in human health conditions. Despite this, major health crises such as high mortality rates, particularly those related to HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, and Avian Influenza continue to create major problems in many regions of the world. This has consequently been a key problem brought up in a great number of international conferences that have been addressing the concerns of patents in pharmaceutical innovations and access to healthcare that is both fair and cheap.

A pharmaceutical patent is the right given to a pharmaceutical firm to create a new drug exclusively for a term of twenty (20) years. This right is granted in exchange for the pharmaceutical company paying royalties. This, in turn, results in the dilemma of such medicines having prohibitively high prices and being difficult to access, particularly in developing nations. This study evaluates the rationale for the grant of pharmaceutical patents. It highlights the public health crises that are posed by such protection. It considers whether invention is truly accomplished by the grant of pharmaceutical patent. Finally, it examines the legal framework for pharmaceutical patent, particularly the TRIPS Agreement, in relation to the balance between the public health right and patents.

Because of this, the research aims to reduce the scope of protection afforded to pharmaceutical patents, promotes the most effective utilisation of the flexibilities afforded by the TRIPS Agreement, and provides recommendations concerning additional methods that can be utilised for the purpose of reducing the severity of public health crises and achieving innovation.