Human rights obligations of drug companies

Abstract

This article addresses the human rights obligations of pharmaceutical companies regarding access to vaccines and other drugs developed to prevent and treat COVID-19, and more broadly regarding access to essential medicines. We examine two United Nations guidelines–the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies in relation to Access to Medicines–which assert that pharmaceutical companies have human rights responsibilities to make essential medicines available to patients in the global South, and that member-states are responsible for enforcing these obligations. We develop a moral theory that justifies such human rights duties based on the idea of a “social contract” that more broadly underpins the idea of corporate social responsibility. We conclude by offering practical advice enabling pharmaceutical companies to balance their human rights duties to the global South with their responsibilities to shareholders and the need to sustainably incentivize drug discovery.