Abstract
The World Trade Organization (WTO) introduced numerous multilateral agreements to the GATT framework, and the TRIPS Agreement was one such agreement. One of the rights protected under the TRIPS Agreement is patent rights, which include pharmaceutical inventions. The implementation of the TRIPS Agreement required the introduction of TRIPS-compliant domestic IP legislation in both developed country- and developing country- Member States of the WTO. This also witnessed the creation of barriers in the access to affordable medicines in developing countries and least developed countries (LDCs). It also witnessed transnational pharmaceutical corporations (TNPCs) engage in direct legal battles with Member States in their own domestic courts either to challenge judicial decisions or to challenge the veracity of national legislation.Although it is close to 30-years since the TRIPS Agreement came into force, the problem of access to medicines have not gone away. In the post-WTO era, the developed country Member States led by the likes of the United States (US), and the European Union (EU) have proceeded to finalise free trade/regional trade agreements (RTAs) with developing country Member States, which invariably contain cleverly crafted TRIPS-plus provisions, which require contracting parties to waive the right to the use of flexibilities guaranteed under the TRIPS Agreement. This brings us back to the debate if there is a need for a global protection of IP rights under the WTO. The question of global protection of IP rights, per se, under the WTO is beyond the remit of this research project, but the question if extended IP rights protection is to be accorded to pharmaceutical patents under the multilateral trading systems is very much at the core of the discussion. The debate on both questions have raged, but the latter has persisted and has not been clearly dealt with at the multilateral level and resolved.
The author of the current research project has carried out detailed case studies on access to medicines and pharmaceutical patent rights covering five countries and spread over three continents (see portfolio of publications). The peer reviewed publications also include a jurisprudential enquiry into the justification of granting patent rights to pharmaceutical patents and a monograph on the continuing problem of access to medicines in the post-WTO TRIPS era (see portfolio of publications). The current research also seeks to raise additional questions, explore additional avenues of enquiry on the debate, and integrate and synthesise the portfolio of the author’s publications through required commentary. The question ‘should the WTO TRIPS Agreement be modified/ amended to exclude pharmaceutical patents from its remit of extended IP rights protection?’ will form the basis of enquiry for the project.
| Date of Award | 2023 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Manos Magkanaris (Supervisor) & Eleanor Russell (Supervisor) |