Pharmaceutical Patenting Vis-À-Vis Right To Health: A Legal Conundrum

Palak Lall, LLM (Business Law), Amity Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh

ABSTRACT

Initially, the clash between pharmaceutical patents and healthcare access received little attention from the international community. This started to alter in the late 1990s, when litigation over the South African (SA) Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Act arose between the SA government and a number of global pharmaceutical corporations. From that point on, it became a pressing worldwide problem, addressed by a diverse group of governments, NGOs, and academicians. Even though all of these parties agree that resolving this problem is urgent and necessary, there is still no agreement on how to do it, and sadly, it doesn't appear like any resolution will be reached anytime soon.

The history of the conflict may be traced as follows. The majority of nations did not issue patents for pharmaceuticals until the latter part of the 20th century, mainly because of worries over their effect on public health. The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) bolstered the patent protection for medicines that had previously been in place in developed nations. While poor countries and non- governmental organisations (NGOs) stressed the Agreement's harmful effect on healthcare and crucial medications in developing and undeveloped countries, the pharmaceutical industry was pleased with its provisions.

Through this research, I will analyse the discrepancies between how pharmaceutical sector perceives the conflict on one hand and how the developing nations and NGO’s perceive it on the other hand.