Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
9.2 Intellectual Property Rights and Global Public Health
According to the World Health Assembly,
current incentive systems fail to generate enough research and development, in either the
public or private sectors, to address the needs of developing countries (WHO
2012b
: 24).
By 'incentive systems', the World Health Assembly means mechanisms to
finance research and development into health care products and health care ser-
vices. The main incentive system today is the international system of intellectual
property rights (IPR) and, in particular, patents.
9.2.1 Incentive Systems: International Intellectual Property
Rights
Intellectual property rights give innovators private property rights over creations
of the mind. While property rights over land and tangible goods such as houses
and farm animals have been part of human practice for a long time, intellectual
property rights are a relatively recent phenomenon dating back only as far as the
nineteenth century. One of the earliest protected drugs, for instance, was aspirin,
first sold in 1899 (Dutfield
2009
: 13).
Today, in all ields of innovation, from topics to practical applications such as
cutlery trays in dishwashers or cancer treatments, intellectual property rights are
protected by national and international legislation. What this means in practice is
that the originator of an idea applies for state protection through, for instance, a
patent. Once obtained, the patent allows its holder to stop others from using the
idea for a specified time, unless they pay a mutually agreed licence fee. Table
9.2
describes standard types of intellectual property as protected through national and
international legislation.
Some products require considerable investment in research and development
but are then easily copied by others who did not contribute to the development
costs (e.g. medicines). There is an understanding that such innovations can only be
made cost-effective when developers have the chance to recoup their investment
costs during a monopoly interval (typically 20 years). As economists phrase it:
The economic purpose of patents is … to bar entry of copy products for the term of the
patent, to provide the innovator firm with an opportunity to price above the marginal cost
and thereby recoup R&D [research and development] expense, in order to preserve incen-
tives for future R&D (Danzon and Towse
2003
: 185).
It is assumed that without such legislation, fewer new drugs would be pro-
duced, fewer cinematic films made and fewer inventions brought to market.
Property rights to creations of the mind were therefore introduced in order to ena-
ble innovators to charge high mark-ups on their products. While this mechanism
can facilitate and accelerate the development of science in affluent settings, it has
