Introduction
By the end of 2019, humanity was confronted by a new infectious disease caused by a new coronavirus, the covid-19 that led, on
The fight against this new virus has demanded several technical innovations and, apart from the vaccine, many have been the inventions that required the protection by patent: retroviral medicines, diagnostic tests or medical devices, such as ventilators are some of these examples. Nevertheless, the most visible face of this combat has been the vaccine, which put the pharmaceutical companies in a race for its development.
At the time of writing, the vaccines of Pfizer-BioNTech,
This is a situation only possible due to the economic power that the countries have, either to develop the vaccines or to buy the same. Unfortunately, none of these possibilities are viable when we speak about underdeveloped countries, which is a situation that is currently taking place across
Covax initiative
The access to the vaccines by these countries is a problem that found a solution in the Covax incentive, an international mechanism co-led by Gavi (
Many have been the public declarations by António Guterres, the current secretary-general of the
Patent system and collision with the right to health
The access to pharmaceutical products, particularly the access to the vaccines for covid-19 may also find a solution through the application of the rules of intellectual property.
The vaccines that are currently being administered are protected by patent. A patent is a right granted by the government, in which the inventor has the exclusive right to explore the invention during the period of 20 years. To be granted, the patent is required to meet certain requirements, particularly, novelty, inventive step, and industrial applicability. Pharmaceutical products that are protected by patent are sold with a higher cost in relation to the production cost, to compensate the investment in I&D. The grant of a patent intends to promote technological and scientific progress by way of offering to the inventor exclusivity in the market.
Nevertheless, the patent system as it is designed collides with a commensurable ethical aspect: the right to health.
For this reason, the patent system is not strict and determines mechanisms that allow access to pharmaceutical products, particularly, vaccines protected by patents. The most relevant limitations and exceptions to the patent system may be summoned as follows:
- The temporal and territorial limitation: patents are valid for a limited period and are only protected in the jurisdictions in which the protection was requested.
- The private use of the patent without commercial purposes: there is no violation of a patent when there is the use by a third party of the invention privately and without commercial purposes.
- The experimental use does not constitute a patent violation, provided that the use is done within essays or experimental purposes.
- Exhaustion of the right: the rights conferred by the patent do not allow the owner of the patent to prohibit any acts related to the same after the invention is legally put in the market by the patent owner.
- Compulsory licensing: when a government allows someone else to produce a patented product or the patented process without the consent of the patent owner.
Compulsory licensing as a mechanism to access pharmaceutical products (vaccines)
As stated above, the compulsory license is when a government allows someone else to produce a patented product or the patented process without the consent of the patent owner.
The license may be granted when (i) there is lack or insufficiency of the exploration of the invention; (ii) there is patent dependency; or (iii) when there are public interest reasons, in which public health is, of course, included.
The grant of compulsory licenses is dependent on a proportionality judgment between the right to the patent and the public health, however, it has been indicated as the main instrument to access to patent medicines and vaccines.
Article 31 of TRIPS Agreement authorizes countries to make provisions for grant of compulsory license to third parties without authorization from the patent holder and lays down certain conditions which shall be considered while granting compulsory license.
"Despite this legal mechanism that allows underdeveloped countries to access the vaccines or other patented medicines, there is no record of African countries making use of the same during the pandemic of covid-19 until today."
Until 2001, when the Doha Declaration was signed at a
Despite this legal mechanism that allows underdeveloped countries to access the vaccines or other patented medicines, there is no record of African countries making use of the same during the pandemic of covid-19 until today. Indeed, only
Considering that the pandemic is still far from being controlled, depending on the efficacy of the Covax initiative or any other mechanism that may be used (uplifting of the rules of TRIPS Agreement has it has been defended by some), it is possible that we see some countries in
Use of compulsory licenses by African countries
The use of compulsory licensing by underdeveloped countries is not new. The Doha Declaration has contributed for underdeveloped countries to not be afraid of commercial sanctions when issuing compulsory licenses over patented pharmaceutical products.
One of the examples was
In 2005, in
This article was originally published in
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