Abstract
The collision between intellectual property rights and the right to health due to obligations assumed simultaneously –the WTO TRIPS Agreement and the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights– by the twelve countries of South America, has had a profound impact regarding their populations access to essential medicines. The paper reports this situation in the region, while placing it in the context of the debate on trade and human rights, which has been particularly strong since the beginning of this century in the field of public health. The need for South American countries to strengthen intraregional cooperation as well as the promotion of South-South cooperation in access to essential medicines, taking into account the prevalence of pharmaceutical patents held by private laboratories in the northern hemisphere, is underlined. The advances made in this direction by the South American Health Council of Unasur, together with its actions as a regional bloc at the WTO meetings, are promising steps that must be complemented by the development of joint drug production capabilities.
Highlights
La colisión del derecho a la salud y del derecho de propiedad intelectual generada por las obligaciones que simultáneamente asumen los doce países de Suramérica en el marco del Pacto Internacional de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales de la ONU, por una parte, y en el Acuerdo sobre los ADPIC de la OMC, por la otra, ha supuesto un profundo impacto en el acceso a medicamentos esenciales para sus poblaciones
The collision between intellectual property rights and the right to health due to obligations assumed simultaneously –the WTO TRIPS Agreement and the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights– by the twelve countries of South America, has had a profound impact regarding their populations access to essential medicines
The advances made in this direction by the South American Health Council of Unasur, together with its actions as a regional bloc at the WTO meetings, are promising steps that must be complemented by the development of joint drug production capabilities
Summary
Con el término de la Segunda Guerra Mundial y la creación de la onu se fue desarrollando cada vez con mayor vigor el didh, sentándose las bases del marco jurídico internacional del derecho a la salud en la Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos[8] de 1948. Los Estados Partes en el presente Pacto reconocen el derecho de toda persona al disfrute del más alto nivel posible de salud física y mental. El concepto de medicamento esencial generaba, como documenta Greene[16], honda preocupación y fuertes críticas por parte de la poderosa industria farmacéutica en Estados Unidos y en Europa, asociada en la Federación Internacional de Fabricantes y Asociaciones Farmacéuticas, la que declaraba su rechazo a este concepto, considerándolo inaceptable para sus intereses y comunicando esta postura al Director General de la oms de la época, Halfdan Mahler. Lo anterior teniendo en cuenta que previo a la creación de la omc y del establecimiento del Acuerdo sobre los adpic en 1995, más de 50 países contemplaban en sus legislaciones la prohibición de patentes sobre productos farmacéuticos[20]
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