Changing drug markets under new intellectual property regimes: the view from Central America

The intellectual property rules inscribed in the Central American Free Trade Agreement have generated concern about access to medicines. We examined the implementation of the new intellectual property regime by tracking the policies and practices in place across 4 Central American countries. Although all 4 were responding to the same requirements under the agreement, their implementation of intellectual property rules differed. Not only were institutional practices different, but the lists of drugs to which intellectual property protection was applied varied in both volume and content. We also found that even without the influence of intellectual property, drug pricing in the region was often unpredictable and that lower cost was not the only motivation driving governments' purchasing decisions.