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[Access to essential drugs in developing countries]
1Departamento de Pediatría. Hospital 12 de Octubre. Madrid. Colaborador de Intermón-Oxfam.
Insights
Infectious diseases disproportionately affect impoverished children. Stricter patent rules hinder access to affordable generic medicines, worsening global health disparities for the poor.
Area of Science:
- Global Health
- Public Health Policy
- Pharmaceutical Law
Background:
- Infectious diseases cause millions of deaths annually, with a high burden on children in developing nations.
- Poverty, inadequate public spending, and poor sanitation limit access to essential medicines for vulnerable populations.
- The World Health Organization estimates 2 billion people lack access to essential medicines, a situation exacerbated by new patent regulations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the impact of World Trade Organization (WTO) intellectual property rules on access to essential medicines in developing countries.
- To highlight the challenges faced by low-income populations in obtaining necessary medical treatments due to patent exclusivity.
- To examine the role of international trade agreements in global health equity.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of World Trade Organization (WTO) intellectual property regulations and their implications for pharmaceutical access.
- Review of case studies from developing countries (e.g., India, Brazil, South Africa, Kenya) affected by stricter patent rules.
- Examination of advocacy efforts by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) promoting access to medicines.
Main Results:
- New WTO patent rules, granting 20-year exclusivity, restrict governments' ability to permit low-cost generic drug production and importation.
- Developing countries producing or importing generics have faced legal and political pressure from the pharmaceutical industry and developed nations.
- International campaigns and legal challenges have resulted in limited successes for improving medicine access for the poor.
Conclusions:
- Stricter patent rules significantly impede access to essential medicines for impoverished populations, particularly in developing countries.
- Urgent reforms in international patent law and increased investment in research for diseases prevalent in developing regions are crucial for improving global health outcomes.
- Continued advocacy and legal action are necessary to ensure equitable access to life-saving medications worldwide.
Abstract:
Every year infectious diseases kill about 13 million people, about 30.000 deaths a day. Almost half of the victims are children younger than 5 years old, most of them belong to developing countries. Most of the premature deaths and the incapacity cases associated to infectious diseases could be avoided if the poor had access to medicines. In the developing world, the poverty of the families, the inappropried public expense and the lack of sanitary infrastructures get together to leave out of the reach of the poor the possibility of an adequate medical treatment. According to World Health Organization (WHO) in the developing countries about 2,000 million people lack access to essential medicines. The new patent rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) will reduce even more access to essential medicines to the poor. Granting trade exclusivity rights to the owners of the patents for a period of at least 20 years limits the right of the governments to allow production, trade and importation of low cost copies (generics) of patented drugs. It is not a theoretical or far away menace. The application of these more strict rules has all ready caused serious problems to developing countries producers of generics as India or Brazil or to importers of these as South Africa or Kenya. They have been press, taken to court and threaten of sanctions by the pharmaceutical industry and some developed countries governments. The decision of some developing countries to fight for their most needed people's health added to the international campaign for the access to essential medicines defended by some non governmental organizations like Act Up, Treatment Action Campaign, Doctors Without Borders and Intermon Oxfam have implied small victories on behalf of the poor countries access to medicines. But deeper changes in the patent rules and the investigation of the diseases of the developing world are needed to improve health in the developing countries.
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