Access to Life-Saving Medicines

The right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health has been recognized for more than half a century by various international instruments, most prominently the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yet, health outcomes such as adult and infant mortality rates show that it has not yet been achieved in major parts of the world. One of the main obstacles to realizing the universal right to health is that almost 2 billion people lack access to life-saving medicines. This chapter has two aims: one, to assess whether intellectual property rights of innovators can trump the right to health of the poor, and two, if not, whether a feasible reform plan to the intellectual property rights system could align the interests of innovators and the poor. The right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health has been recognized for more than half a century by various international instruments, most prominently the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This chapter describes the legal basis for the human right to health and outlines the main purpose of intellectual property rights (IPR). It assesses whether the rights of innovators to intellectual property protection trump the human right to health. The chapter presents an amendment to the current IPR system, which would balance strong incentives for innovation with providing access to life-saving medicines to the poor. States decided to adopt binding and enforceable legislation on intellectual property rights because it provides incentives to innovators by enabling them to charge high markups on their products. The Health Impact Fund would be most attractive for products that are expected to have a large global health impact but relatively low profitability under monopoly pricing.