Basic Survival Needs and Access to Medicines - Coming to Grips with TRIPS: Conversion plus Calculation

"Access to medicines" is a broad concept. After a review of three authoritative frameworks that help to identify its constitutive components, this essay summarizes the actual situation on the ground in low- and middle-income countries on the basis of recent empirical work. An analysis of s...

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Main Author:	Van Puymbroeck, R. V.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	EN
Published:	2012
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5370

id	okr-10986-5370
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-53702021-04-23T14:02:22Z Basic Survival Needs and Access to Medicines - Coming to Grips with TRIPS: Conversion plus Calculation Van Puymbroeck, R. V. "Access to medicines" is a broad concept. After a review of three authoritative frameworks that help to identify its constitutive components, this essay summarizes the actual situation on the ground in low- and middle-income countries on the basis of recent empirical work. An analysis of survey data from 36 countries concluded that developing countries should promote generic medicines as a key policy option for improving access to medicines. Taking an international perspective to that recommendation, this essay reviews the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and, particularly, how this agreement has been applied in practice. As shown by the experience of Thailand, Brazil, and the Philippines, in order to deal effectively with international pressures for an excessive application of the TRIPS Agreement, some sort of conversion experience appears to be required, which then leads to a switch from a private enterprise, supply-driven approach to a public health vision that insists on universal and affordable access. But moral conviction is not sufficient. In order to muster and sustain the political will to face down international forces, civil society and government offices must be able and ready to show the costs and other adverse consequences of the TRIPS-based model for medicines. This calculation needs to reach beyond the health sector and calls for new alliances, nationally as well as internationally. 2012-03-30T07:32:31Z 2012-03-30T07:32:31Z 2010 Journal Article Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics 1073-1105 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5370 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	EN
relation	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description	"Access to medicines" is a broad concept. After a review of three authoritative frameworks that help to identify its constitutive components, this essay summarizes the actual situation on the ground in low- and middle-income countries on the basis of recent empirical work. An analysis of survey data from 36 countries concluded that developing countries should promote generic medicines as a key policy option for improving access to medicines. Taking an international perspective to that recommendation, this essay reviews the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and, particularly, how this agreement has been applied in practice. As shown by the experience of Thailand, Brazil, and the Philippines, in order to deal effectively with international pressures for an excessive application of the TRIPS Agreement, some sort of conversion experience appears to be required, which then leads to a switch from a private enterprise, supply-driven approach to a public health vision that insists on universal and affordable access. But moral conviction is not sufficient. In order to muster and sustain the political will to face down international forces, civil society and government offices must be able and ready to show the costs and other adverse consequences of the TRIPS-based model for medicines. This calculation needs to reach beyond the health sector and calls for new alliances, nationally as well as internationally.
format	Journal Article
author	Van Puymbroeck, R. V.
spellingShingle	Van Puymbroeck, R. V. Basic Survival Needs and Access to Medicines - Coming to Grips with TRIPS: Conversion plus Calculation
author_facet	Van Puymbroeck, R. V.
author_sort	Van Puymbroeck, R. V.
title	Basic Survival Needs and Access to Medicines - Coming to Grips with TRIPS: Conversion plus Calculation
title_short	Basic Survival Needs and Access to Medicines - Coming to Grips with TRIPS: Conversion plus Calculation
title_full	Basic Survival Needs and Access to Medicines - Coming to Grips with TRIPS: Conversion plus Calculation
title_fullStr	Basic Survival Needs and Access to Medicines - Coming to Grips with TRIPS: Conversion plus Calculation
title_full_unstemmed	Basic Survival Needs and Access to Medicines - Coming to Grips with TRIPS: Conversion plus Calculation
title_sort	basic survival needs and access to medicines - coming to grips with trips: conversion plus calculation
publishDate	2012
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5370
_version_	1764394805932064768

Basic Survival Needs and Access to Medicines - Coming to Grips with TRIPS: Conversion plus Calculation

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