Access to Medicines in Low- and Middle-Income Countries – Is the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to blame?
Bedima Duut1
1 Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC, USA
October(2024) pp 1-9 DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/gpj.2024101
Published online 28th October 2024.
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license
ABSTRACT
This paper argues that the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement is not solely responsible for the lack of access to medicines (ATM) in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). ATM is a complex global health governance issue influenced by various factors, including intellectual property laws, trade agreements, domestic policies, and manufacturing capacity.
While the TRIPS Agreement provides flexibilities to address public health concerns, such as compulsory licensing and parallel imports, their effective implementation is hindered by several challenges. This paper emphasizes the need for a multifaceted approach to address ATM, involving domestic policy reforms, international cooperation, and investment in domestic manufacturing capacity. By leveraging these strategies, LMICs can enhance access to essential medicines and improve health outcomes for their populations.
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSGH). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.