Compulsory licensing, price controls, and access to patented foreign products

Compulsory Licensing and Access to Medicine in Developing Countries

Health care and access to patented technologies.

The past 25 years have witnessed a growing interaction between healthcare and intellectual property rights. This growth has been due to both new genetic technologies and the expanding scope of intellectual property protection. The interaction does not come without costs, however, and intellectual property rights are increasingly pointed to as a culprit in access to health care. Disputes over My...

Finding flaws: the limitations of compulsory licensing for improving access to medicines--an international comparison.

Comment on Ford et al., 'Sustaining access to antiretroviral therapy in developing countries: lessons from Brazil and Thailand'.

Efforts to ensure access to expensive, patented drugs Developing countries were not required to grant patents on medicines until 2005, but under US government threats of trade sanctions, Thailand and Brazil began doing so at least ten years prior to this date. Brazil has used price negotiations with multi-national pharmaceutical companies to lower the price of newer patented antiretrovirals. Ho...

Sustaining access to antiretroviral therapy in the less-developed world: lessons from Brazil and Thailand.

UNLABELLED ANTIRETROVIRAL ROLLOUT IN BRAZIL AND THAILAND: Brazil and Thailand are among few developing countries to achieve universal access to antiretroviral therapy. Three factors were critical to this success: legislation for free access to treatment; public sector capacity to manufacture medicines; and strong civil society action to support government initiatives to improve access. LOCAL PR...