Patents and Public Health: State Responsibility to Opt for a Balanced Approach

Saima Butt, Kamran Shaukat (), Talha Mahboob Alam () and Tony Jan
Additional contact information
Saima Butt: Department of Shariah and Law, International Islamic University Islamabad, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Kamran Shaukat: Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Optimisation, Design and Creative Technology Vertical, Torrens University Australia, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
Talha Mahboob Alam: Department of Computer Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7034 Trondheim, Norway
Tony Jan: Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Optimisation, Design and Creative Technology Vertical, Torrens University Australia, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia

Societies, 2024, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-14

Abstract: The topic of public health is indispensable to talk about. It is essential to discuss new inventions, new and improved treatments, and their efficiencies with different combinations, but one thing that is important to remember is whether these inventions are available for those in need. Availability concerns are linked with affordability, as the affordability of a drug determines its consumption; furthermore, affordability can lead to overconsumption. The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement provides flexibility to control the misuse of patent monopolies. The object of this research is twofold: one is to investigate whether and how Pakistan incorporates TRIPS flexibilities in its national patent legislation, and the second is to find out the reason for unaffordable cancer treatment in Pakistan. This research highlights that the use of TRIPS flexibilities in Pakistan will help the state authorities to provide better health facilities to the public generally as well as particularly in cancer cases, as cancer treatment in Pakistan is unaffordable. The methodology applied for this research is primarily comparative and bears the qualitative aspect of the issue. This research concludes that Pakistan’s legal system fails to incorporate effective legal provisions related to TRIPS flexibilities, and it also highlights that the ever-greening of patents results in the high prices of cancer medicines in Pakistan. This research further recommended that there is a dire need to incorporate and use TRIPS flexibilities in the country to control the high prices of cancer treatment and cancer mortality rate in the country.

Keywords: patent; public health; Pakistan; India; right to health; compulsory license; cancer; TRIPS agreement; affordability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/14/8/152/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/14/8/152/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:14:y:2024:i:8:p:152-:d:1455200

Access Statistics for this article

Societies is currently edited by Ms. Farrah Sun

More articles in Societies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().