Patents and public health: Principle, politics and paradox

Proceedings of the British Academy

Volumn 131, Issue , 2005, Pages 331-369

  Cameron, Edwin ^a   Berger, Jonathan ^b  

^a Supreme Court of Appeal ^*  (South Africa)

^b UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 62149147578     PISSN: 00681202     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book Series    
DOI: 10.5871/bacad/9780197263518.003.0012     Document Type: Article

References (50)

1. See C. C. Carpenter et al., 'Antiretroviral therapy for HIV infection in 1996: Recommendations of an international panel', The Journal of the American Medical Association, 276 (1996), 146-54
2. Declaration on the TRIPs Agreement and Public Health, WTO Res. WT/MIN(01)/DEC/2, 4th Sess., Ministerial Conference, 20 Nov. 2001, available online at www.wto.org/english/thewto-e/minist-e/min01-e/mindecl-TRIPs-e.doc
3. R. P. Rozek and N. Tully, 'The TRIPS Agreement and Access to Health Care', The Journal of World Intellectual Property, 2 (1999), 813-19
4. P. Drahos, 'The Universality of Intellectual Property Rights: Origins and Development' in Intellectual Property Rights and Human Rights (World Intellectual Property Organization in collaboration with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Nov. 1998), p. 14
5. See, for example, The Royal Society, 'Keeping science open: the effects of intellectual property policy on the conduct of science' (2004), available online at www.royalsoc.ac.uk/displaypagedoc. asp?id=6343
6. See Consumer Project on Technology, 'Additional notes on government role in the development of HIV/AIDS drugs', available online at www.cptech.org/ip/ health/aids/gov-role.html
7. For further detail, see James Packard Love, expert affidavit in Hazel Tau and Others v Glaxo SmithKline SA (Pty) Ltd and Others, available online at www.tac.org.za/Documents/Drug CompaniesCC/DrugCompaniesCC.htm
8. Michael J. Trebilcock and Robert Howse, The Regulation of International Trade, 2nd edn (London, 1999), p. 309
9. In this regard, it is interesting to note that imperial China, for example, 'achieved spectacular outcomes in science and innovation, yet it did not rely on intellectual property rights or a customary equivalent'. Eighteenth-century England, on the other hand, adopted this 'distinctly instrumental' justificatory approach to IP (Peter Drahos, A Philosophy of Intellectual Property (Aldershot, 1996), pp. 14-15)
10. But, warns May, '[o]nly by conceiving of the public benefit as exclusively the promotion of innovation can pharmaceutical patents appeal to an instrumental justification. To conceive of the public interest as the right to health undermines the[se] arguments' (Christopher May, A Global Political Economy of Intellectual Property Rights: The new enclosures? (London, 2000), p. 101)
11. E. C. Hettinger, 'Justifying Intellectual Property', Philosophy and Public Affairs, 18 (1989), 31-52, 48
12. Joan Robinson, quoted in Dorothy Nelkin, Science as Intellectual Property (New York, 1984), p. 15
13. Andy Gray and Thulani Matsebula, Chapter 9: 'Drug Pricing' in Antoinette Ntuli et al. (eds.), South African Health Review 2000 (Durban, 2001), available online at www.hst.org.za/uploads/ files/chapter9-00.pdf at 205
14. See D. Vaver, 'Intellectual Property Today: Of Myths and Paradoxes', Canadian Bar Review, 69 (1990), 98-128
15. R. E. Meiners and R. J. Staaf, 'Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks: Property or Monopoly?', Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, 13 (1990), 911-40
16. See J. Berger, 'Tripping Over Patents: AIDS, Access to Treatment and the Manufacturing of Scarcity', Connecticut Journal of International Law, 17(2002), 157-248
17. R. Weissman, 'A Long, Strange TRIPs: The Pharmaceutical Industry Drive to Harmonize Global Intellectual Property Rules, and the Remaining Legal Alternatives Available to Third World Countries', University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Economic Law, 17 (1996), 1069-1132
18. L. T. C. Harms, 'The Role of the Judiciary in the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights: Intellectual Property Litigation under the Common Law System with Special Emphasis on the Experience in South Africa', European Intellectual Property Review, 26 (2004), 483-92, 488, adapting a statement of Laddie J
19. D. Vaver, 'Canada's intellectual property framework: a comparative overview', Intellectual Property Journal, 17 (2004), 125-88
20. P. Drahos and J. Braithwaite, 'Intellectual Property, Corporate Strategy, Globalisation: TRIPs in Context', Wisconsin International Law Journal, 20 (2002), 451-80
21. See S. K. Sell, 'TRIPs and the Access to Medicines Campaign', Wisconsin International Law Journal, 20 (2002), 481-522
22. See generally, Michael Ryan, Knowledge Diplomacy: Global Competition and the Politics of Intellectual Property (Washington, DC, 1998)
23. See General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade - Multilateral Trade Negotiations (The Uruguay Round): Final Act Embodying the Results of the Uruguay Round of Trade Negotiations (15 Dec. 1993), International Legal Materials, 33 (1994), 1, 2. The Agreement has four annexes, the first three of which are integral parts of the agreement. Annex 1 deals with substantive trade agreements on trade in goods, trade in services and trade-related aspects of IPRs. Annex 2 deals with dispute resolution, with annex 3 providing for a process of multilateral surveillance of national trade policies. Only annex 4 deals with agreements that are not necessarily binding on member states
24. Ibid
25. Sanjaya Lall, 'Indicators of the Relative Importance of IPRs in Developing Countries', UNCTAD-ICTSD Project on IPRs and Sustainable Development Issue Paper No. 3, 1
26. The TRIPs Agreement: A Guide for the South - The Uruguay Round Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (South Centre, Geneva: 1997), 36-7 n. 29, available online at www.southcentre.org/publications/trips/tripsmam.pdf
27. Carlos Correa, 'Formulating Effective Pro-development National Intellectual Property Policies' in Christophe Bellmann et al., (eds.). Trading in Knowledge: Development Perspectives on TRIPS, Trade and Sustainability (London and Sterling, VA, 2003), p. 210
28. J. M. Finger, 'The WTO's Special Burden on Less Developed Countries', Cato Journal, 19 (2000), 425-37
29. See A. N. Littman, 'Restoring the Balance of Our Patent System', IDEA: The Journal of Law and Technology, 37 (1997), 545-70, 545, where the author argues that 'the neutral balance between patent holders and the public domain created by the constitutional and statutory system has been shifted by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to one that unduly favors the patent holder'
30. See Report of the Appellate Body, AB-1997-5, 19 Dec. 1997 at paragraph 1, available at www.wto.org/english/tratop-e/dispu-e/distabase-wto-members2-e. htm
31. See Report of the Panel, WT/DS50/R, 5 Sept. 1997, also available at www.wto.org/english/ tratop-e/dispu-e/distabase-wto-members2-e.htm
32. See Report of the Appellate Body (above, n. 81), paragraph 57
33. R. Howse, 'The Canadian Generic Medicines Panel: A Dangerous Precedent in Dangerous Times', Journal of World Intellectual Property, 3 (2000), 493-507
34. M. Heywood, 'Debunking "Conglomo-talk": A Case Study of the Amicus Curiae as an Instrument for Advocacy, Investigation and Mobilisation', Law Democracy & Development, 5 (2001), 133-62
35. Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS: 'Global Crisis - Global Action, UN GA, 26th Spec. Sess. (27 June 2001) at paragraph 2, available online at www.unaids.org/whatsnew/ others/un-special
36. For a summary of three of the key compulsory licences issued in developing countries to increase access to essential medicines, see 'WTO and medicines: from Doha to Cancún', WHO/EDM Technical Briefing Seminar (27 Sept.-1 Oct. 2004), available online at www.who.int/ medicines/organization/par/ briefing/tbs2004/Seminar2/tbs2004-2.shtml
37. See also Treatment Action Campaign, 'Zimbabwe declares emergency to use generic antiretrovirals - TAC welcomes step but urges democratic accountability and return to rule of law' (5 June 2002), available online at www.tac.org.za/newsletter/2002/ns05-06-2002.txt
38. See Canada's 'Bill C-9: An Act to amend the Patent Act and the Food and Drugs Act', available online at www.parl.gc.ca/37/3/parlbus/chambus/house/bills/ gorernment/C-9/C-9-4/C-9- cover-E. html. In the case of Norway, see 'Regulations amending the Patent Regulations (in accordance with the decision of the WTO General Council of 30 August 2003, Paragraphs 1(b) and 2(a))', available online at http://odin.dep.no/ud/enselsk/p2500832/p30003923/032121- 990069/dok-bu.html. Most recently, India became the first developing country (importantly one with significant local manufacturing capacity), to adopt a compulsory licensing mechanism to allow for the local production of generic medicines solely for export to countries with limited or no domestic manufacturing capacity (see section 92A of the Patents Act, 1970 (as amended)). The European Union has begun taking steps towards the implementation of the 30 Aug. decision
39. See Commission of the European Communities, 'Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on compulsory licensing of patents relating to the manufacture of pharmaceutical products for export to countries with public health problems', available online at www.europa.eu.int/comm/ internal-market/en/indprop/patent/draft-medicines-en. pdf
40. See www.alp.org.za
41. The plan is available online at www.info.gov.za/issues/hiv/ careplan19nov03.htm
42. See E. Cameron 'AIDS Denial and Holocaust Denial - AIDS, Justice and the Courts in South Africa', South African Law Journal, 120 (2003), 525-39
43. Revised Guideline 6 is available online at www.unaids.org/en/inaids-/ human-rights/international-guidelines.asp#guideline-6
44. See, for example, section 27 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996
45. For more information, see Office of the United States Trade Representative, 'Trade Agreements', available online at www.ustr.gov/Trade- Agreements/Section-Index.html. There are also framework agreements with most Arab states as a prelude to full FTAs. See, for example, http://mumbai. usconsulate.gov/wwwhwto46.html
46. See Alexandre Zourabishvili, 'Brazil's position in the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas Negotiation Process', South African Institute of International Affairs Trade Policy Briefing (No. 5 Feb. 2004), available online at http://saiia.org.za/images/upload/tpb5.pdf
47. See Lukanyo Mnyanda, 'US-SACU trade talks grind to a halt', Business Day (22 Sept. 2004), available online at www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id-article= 799
48. See Jonathan Berger, 'What about Big Pharma', Mail & Guardian (28 Jan. 2005), 29
49. WIPO has recently come under pressure from a developing country initiative (spearheaded by Brazil) to adopt a 'Development Agenda'. This has come up against the vehement opposition of the USTR. See, for example, www.wipo.int/documents/en/ document/govbody/wo-gb-ga/pdf/wo-ga-31-11.pdf
50. Rosine Jourdain, 'Intellectual Property Rights and Public Health in the Revised Bangui Agreement, in Christophe Bellmann et al. (eds.). Trading in Knowledge: Development Perspectives on TRIPS, Trade and Sustainability (London and Sterling, VA, 2003), p. 144