Access to medication

Access to medicines at an affordable price is a key factor in addressing these challenges in developing countries, where a large part of the spending on health is allocated to pharmaceutical products. Rules on commerce and free trade agreements (FTAs) have a direct impact on the prices of medicines as we will go on to see, and can lead to the economic and financial interests of pharmaceutical giants taking precedence, at the expense of the right to health care.

Illustration: India
India, once nicknamed the “pharmacy of the developing world” played and continues to play a crucial role in falling medicine prices in the developing world. The country has opted for a balanced intellectual property system which protects public health and only grants patents where there is genuine innovation. This allowed India’s generic pharmaceutical industry to supply 20% of generic medicines in the world and 80% of all medicines used to treat HIV/Aids64. The price of first generation antiretrovirals went from 10,000 dollars per patient per year to 100 dollars thanks to competition from India65 and allowed over 5 million patients to benefit from this treatment.