Alternatives to the drug research and development model.

One-third of the global population lacks access to medications; the situation is worse in poor countries, where up to 50% of the population lacks access. The failure of current incentive systems based in intellectual property to offer the necessary pharmaceutical products, especially in the global south, is a call to action. Problems related to drug access cannot be solved solely through improvements or modifications in the existing incentive models.

The right to health and medicines: the case of recent multilateral negotiations on public health, innovation and intellectual property.

The negotiations of the intergovernmental group known as the 'IGWG', undertaken by the Member States of the WHO, were the result of a deadlock in the World Health Assembly held in 2006 where the Member States of the WHO were unable to reach an agreement on what to do with the 60 recommendations in the report on 'Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights submitted to the Assembly in the same year by a group of experts designated by the Director General of the WHO. The result of these negotiations was the 'Global strategy and plan of action on public health, innovation and intellectual property' which was approved by the World Health Assembly in 2008. The intention of the Global Strategy and Plan of Action (GSPOA) which was produced by the IGWG was to substantially reform the pharmaceuticals' research and development system in view of the findings that this system, whose purpose is to produce medicines for diseases which affect the greater part of the world population which lives in developing countries, had failed.

Has the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement in Latin America and the Caribbean produced intellectual property legislation that favours public health?

Objective: The World Trade Organization's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement establishes minimum standards for intellectual property rights, including patent protection for pharmaceuticals; therefore, it may make it difficult for developing countries to gain access to medicines, especially those countries that are the least developed. This study aims to determine whether implementation of the TRIPS Agreement in Latin American and Caribbean countries has generated patent legislation that is sensitive to public health needs.

Methods: Legislation in 11 Latin American and Caribbean countries was analysed.