Conclusion: TRIPS, Drug Production in the Global South and Access to Medicines

Abstract

The Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement, which inaugurated a global regime of minimum intellectual property rights (IPR) standards, marked the high point in the neoliberal tide as it surged across the pharmaceutical sector. The introduction and enforcement of pharmaceutical product patents, hitherto uncommon in the Global South (and also not recognized in many developed countries), was often accompanied by the privatization or closure of state-owned drug firms and an opening-up of the drug sector to foreign investment. IPR standards have been further extended and deepened post-1995 through bilateral and regional trade agreements. While the TRIPS agreement has advantaged the interests of the multinational pharmaceutical companies (MNCs), the variable degree of implementation of this agreement in different countries reported in this volume is one factor limiting that advantage. For the contemporary movement for access to affordable medicines, however, the question is whether the weaknesses in the global IPR regime itself and the resistance described in this volume are likely to be sufficient to secure such access worldwide.