Day June 13, 2019

The Fifth Global Congress Polis Conversation

Probably some of you were part of the 'Polis' conversation we ran at the last Global Congress in September 2018. Polis is a participated-directed survey tool that we've been using to hold large-scale conversations. We reached out to over 1000 Global Congress alum and current attendees. Some 335 participated over two weeks. The results are not based on and do not have the statistical power of a random sample. Nonetheless, they're individually and collectively a pretty interesting portrait of the community.

Product Patents and Access to Innovative Medicines in a Post TRIPS Era

[Jayashree Watal and Rong DAI] This paper examines access to new and innovative pharmaceuticals in a post-TRIPS era. The WTO’s TRIPS Agreement (TRIPS) makes it obligatory for WTO members – except least-developed country members (LDCs) - to provide pharmaceutical product patents with a 20-year protection term. Developing country members, other than LDCs, were meant to be compliant with this provision of TRIPS by 2005. Access to medicines generally includes two distinct components, viz. availability and affordability. This study investigates these two sub-components of access to medicines and poses two questions in this context: (1) How does the introduction of product patents in pharmaceuticals affect the likelihood of pharmaceutical firms making available new and innovative medicines in those markets? (2) For launched new and innovative medicines, how much do firms adjust their prices to local income levels in order to make these products affordable?