Is Compulsory Licensing Bad for Public Health? Some Critical Comments on Drug Accessibility in Developing Countries

As one of the flexibilities provided by the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) establishing minimum standards for the protection of property rights, compulsory license (CL) represents a means towards the protection of public health issues within a context of stringent protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs), most notably in poor-resource settings. However, recent literature asserts that CL constitutes a serious limitation to the full enjoyment of property rights by innovators and may therefore threaten drug accessibility in developing countries. This paper outlines the impact of CL on drug accessibility in developing countries by addressing the three main dimensions of accessibility (availability, affordability and quality) and proceeding to a literature survey of key arguments for and against CL. It concludes that CL inhibits neither the availability of essential drugs nor the affordability of life-saving treatments or the supply of high-quality drugs in developing countries, in particular antiretroviral drugs.