Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
patent protection (as previously available in most affluent countries) on a global
scale. Developing countries were given until 2000 or 2005 (depending on the coun-
try) to bring national legislation in line with WTO demands, with least-developed
countries given until 2006 to effect the changes, although the time frame was later
extended to 2013. A specific proviso was added for pharmaceutical patents, for
which least-developed countries only need to institute full protection by 2016. The
WTO took this measure in view of the concern that patents on pharmaceutical prod-
ucts could impede access to life-saving drugs by poor patients in developing coun-
tries. While debate over exactly how TRIPS should be implemented continues, there
has been further strengthening of intellectual property rights through bilateral trade
agreements that include 'TRIPS-plus' provisions (Smith et al.
2009
).
The World Health Assembly has criticized current pharmaceutical research and
development incentives on two main grounds relating to the needs of developing
countries. First, TRIPS enables patentees to price new products out of the reach of
the poor, as noted above. Second, diseases that predominantly affect the poor
attract insufficient research investment because costs are unlikely to be recouped
through sales. In the words of the World Health Organization's Commission on
Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health:
8
For developing countries, where the demand is weak - but not the need - there is little
incentive to develop new or modified interventions appropriate to the disease burden and
conditions of the country. This economic reality introduces an important gap in the inno-
vation cycle: either no products exist in the first place, or if they do, then there is often
disproportionately small effort, globally, to make them more effective and affordable in
poorer communities. Broadly speaking, the innovation cycle does not work well, or even
at all, for most developing countries (WHO
2012b
: 25).
Figure
9.1
illustrates the imbalance between global health needs and pharma-
ceutical sales. The United States has less than 5% of the world population, but its
patients and consumers are responsible for almost 40% of all pharmaceutical sales
worldwide. By contrast, Asia, Africa and Oceania (including Australia) combined
have about 73% of global population, but represent less than 15% of global phar-
maceutical sales.
The imbalance between global health needs and pharmaceutical sales is attrib-
uted partly to an overemphasis on intellectual property rights as the main incen-
tives mechanism in scientific research. TRIPS has been heavily criticized by
developing country policymakers and thinkers. This is reminiscent of pre-CBD
debates about the exploitation of developing country resources. For instance, as
Vandana Shiva summarises,
nature's diversity and the diversity of knowledge systems are undergoing a major process
of destabilization with the expansion of patents and IPRs into the domain of biodiversity
via the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement of the
World Trade Organization. The whole notion of TRIPs has been shaped by the objectives
and interests of trade and transnational corporations. Through the instrument of TRIPs,
transnational corporations have posed a potential threat to the biological and intellectual
8
The commission was established in 2003 and later superseded by the Expert Working Group
on Research and Development.
