2. Human Rights Responsibilities of Pharmaceutical Companies in Relation to Access to Medicines

2012 ◽  
pp. 25-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajat Khosla ◽  
Paul Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Access To Medicines ◽  
Pharmaceutical Companies

scholarly journals ‘Choking the national demos’: research partnerships and the material constitution of global health

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-127
Author(s):  
John Harrington
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Access To Medicines ◽  
Functional Health ◽  
Essential Medicines ◽  
World Health ◽  
Moral Principle ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Health Law ◽  
The World

By foregrounding a widened view of the rule of law in transnational legal processes, the works under discussion in this symposium can support innovative critical perspectives on global health law –a field that has gained wide attention due to the spread of COVID-19 around the world (Lander, 2020; Bhatt, 2020). Legal and socio-legal scholars in the decade and a half before the pandemic worked on locating global health law and articulating its underlying principles. Lawrence Gostin's 2014 monograph offers a synoptic view centred on international institutions (e.g. the World Health Organization, World Trade Organization, UN Human Rights Council) and problems (e.g. infectious-disease response, tobacco control), along with an elaboration of its normative basis in universal moral principle and international human rights law (Gostin, 2014). Struggles over access to essential medicines and intellectual property in the early 2000s are, for example, represented in terms of the right to health constraining international trade law. Andreas Fischer-Lescano and Guenther Teubner's 2004 reading is oriented more by social theory than by doctrinal or ethical frames (Fischer-Lescano and Teubner, 2004, pp. 1006, 1008). A functional health regime has ‘differentiated out’, they observe, and operates as a discrete communication system across borders, albeit one that is threatened by the preponderant economic system. On this model, the battle for access to medicines amounts to ensuring, via human rights guarantees, that the rationality of the health system is not replaced by that of its economic rival in legal and policy communications (Fischer-Lescano and Teubner, 2004, pp. 1030, 1046).

Individual Responsibility for Promoting Global Health

2020 ◽  
pp. 105-126
Author(s):  
Nicole Hassoun
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
Access To Medicines ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Pharmaceutical Companies

If Global Health Impact labeling is successful, it will give companies a reason to produce drugs that will save millions of lives. One might wonder, however, whether consumers have any moral obligation to purchase goods from Global Health Impact–certified companies or whether purchasing these goods is even morally permissible. The fourth chapter suggests that, if the proposal is implemented, there is reason to purchase goods from Global Health Impact–certified companies. It defends something along the lines of this argument: (1) pharmaceutical companies violate rights and (2) do not do enough to address the access to medicines issue, so (3) if the Global Health Impact initiative helps rectify these problems, people should generally purchase goods from certified companies.

scholarly journals Understanding the trends in international agreements on pricing and reimbursement for newly marketed medicines and their implications for access to medicines: a computational text analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyung-Bok Son
Keyword(s):  
Text Analysis ◽  
Procedural Fairness ◽  
Access To Medicines ◽  
International Agreements ◽  
Decision Processes ◽  
Pharmaceutical Companies ◽  
Domestic Legislation ◽  
Timely Access ◽  
Pricing And Reimbursement ◽  
Similar Vein

Abstract Background Health systems are struggling with unprecedented drug spending and governments have devised various policy options to manage high-priced medicines. Meanwhile, some pricing and reimbursement processes are currently moving under the jurisdiction of international agreements. This study aims to understand trends in international agreements from the perspectives of pricing and reimbursement policies for newly marketed medicines. Methods We proposed the framework to interpret the international agreements as code and applied computational text analysis to understand international agreements as data. In particular, we selected the AUSFTA, KORUS, and TPP to assess the progress and evolution in international agreements and investigate the existing relevant content on the pricing and reimbursement of newly marketed medicines. Results Similar to the provisions for intellectual property, the scope of international agreements regarding pricing and reimbursement decisions are broadened and strengthened. Over time, the domain of transparency, re-naming procedural fairness, has changed significantly more than the remaining domains. Pharmaceutical companies will have more opportunities to advocate for their positions, to protect their interests in decision processes, to investigate the decisions on listings and setting the amounts of reimbursement, and to challenge these decisions. Conclusions Recently signed international agreements favor companies over governments with underscoring procedural fairness and timely access. However, access to affordable medicines is the goal towards which international agreements should aim. In a similar vein, substantial fairness and the accountability of companies should be discussed when negotiating agreements or adopting international agreements through domestic legislation.

Pharmaceutical Companies and Global Lack of Access to Medicines: Strengthening Accountability under the Right to Health

2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anand Grover ◽  
Brian Citro ◽  
Mihir Mankad ◽  
Fiona Lander
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Access To Medicines ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Pharmaceutical Companies ◽  
People Living With Hiv ◽  
Health Concerns ◽  
Life Saving ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Living With Hiv

Approximately two billion people lack access to medicines globally. People living with HIV, cancer patients, those suffering from tuberculosis or malaria, and other populations in desperate need of life-saving medicines are increasingly unable to access existing preventative, curative, and life-prolonging treatments. In many cases, treatment may be unavailable or inaccessible for even some of the most common and readily treatable health concerns, such as hypertension. In the developing world, many of the factors that contribute to making the world’s most vulnerable and marginalized populations particularly susceptible to illness also operate to restrict their access to medicines. As a result of dramatic economic inequities and widespread poverty, it is not profitable for most originator pharmaceutical companies to develop new medicines for sale in developing markets or to lower the cost of existing drugs so that they are affordable for the majority of these populations.

The World Trade Organization

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suerie Moon ◽  
Thirukumaran Balasubramaniam
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
World Trade Organization ◽  
Tobacco Control ◽  
World Trade ◽  
Access To Medicines ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Public Health Services ◽  
Major Power ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Related

The ability of governments to protect and promote health-related human rights can be constrained by international trade rules, including those of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO rules can increase medicine prices, challenge tobacco control measures, restrict national food safety policies, and facilitate brain drain from public health services. This chapter offers a brief history of the WTO’s origins, a high-level overview of the health implications of various WTO agreements, and a closer look at how two key issues—access to medicines and tobacco control—have created greater policy space for health within the WTO. It then identifies the institutional factors that promote or hinder human rights protection and offers conclusions on the prospects for institutionalization of health-related human rights. This chapter concludes that protecting health within the WTO and broader global trade regime is possible, but remains a significant challenge due to major power asymmetries.

scholarly journals Does the Pharmaceutical Sector Have a Coresponsibility for the Human Right to Health?

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
DORIS SCHROEDER
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Pharmaceutical Companies ◽  
Pharmaceutical Sector ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Essential Drugs ◽  
The United Nations

The highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental human right, which has been part of international law since 1948. States and their institutions are the primary duty bearers responsible for ensuring that human rights are respected, protected, and fulfilled. However, more recently it has been argued that pharmaceutical companies have a coresponsibility to fulfill the human right to health. Most prominently, this coresponsibility has been expressed in the United Nations (UN) Millennium Goal 8 Target 4. “In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries.”

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document