Access To Medicines And Corporate Patent Strategies: Trips Flexibilities And The Right To Health In The Post-Covid Era
Aashita Das, Fairfield Institute of Management and Technology (GGSIPU)
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has exemplified how tensions exist between pharmaceutical patent monopoly, business interests, and the right of humans to health. This paper discusses the interaction of corporate patent practices, such as ever greening, patent thickets, the delay of technology transfer and restrictive licensing with the TRIPS flexibilities and the obligations of States under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Based on the 2001 Doha Declaration, the 2022 WTO Ministerial Decision, the compulsory-licensing practice of 2001-2024, and post- pandemic projects like the WHO Health Technology Access Programme and the mRNA Technology Transfer Programme, the paper states that legal flexibilities are needed yet inadequate by themselves. COVID-19 proved that familiarity, regulatory ability, production infrastructure, and political- economic limits can be more critical than patent position. To enhance readiness to future health emergencies, the paper advocates increased domestic utilization of TRIPS flexibilities, human-rights-compatible corporate due diligence, and structural technology-sharing systems.
Keywords: TRIPS flexibilities; compulsory licensing; right to health; access to medicines; patent evergreening; COVID-19; Doha Declaration; corporate human rights due diligence
