This dissertation analyses the impact that the current global intellectual property system is having on the access to antiretroviral treatment in Sub-Saharan Africa. HIV/AIDS is causing an unprecedented public health crisis in the region, where approximately 1.2 million die every year of AIDS-related diseases. Despite the fact that a life-saving treatment exists, the high prices on antiretroviral drugs make them inaccessible to a vast number of patients. This is the direct consequence of the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which entered into force in 1994, by virtue of which signatory states agreed to implement standardized intellectual property protection within their domestic laws. Now, States are required to grant patents to any new invention by a pharmaceutical corporation, which give it the exclusive right to use, manufacture and market the pharmaceutical good for a period of 20 years, thus preventing generic competition. Consequently, patent holders are entitled to freely set the prices on their drugs, which tend to be excessively high. Notwithstanding, the TRIPS agreement establishes a set of opt-out clauses for those cases of national emergency caused by a public health crisis. Governments are given the option to grant compulsory licenses on patented drugs to national manufacturers and to allow for parallel import of patented drugs in order to make them available at affordable prices in the national territory, under the fulfillment of certain requirements. However, the U.S. and the E.U. have continuously opposed to the use of TRIPS-get out clauses under the menace of trade retaliations, and multinational pharmaceutical corporations have threaten to file law suits against those governments issuing compulsory licenses and allowing for parallel import of their drugs. Further, the U.S and the E.U. have celebrated free trade agreements with developing states containing obligations that hinder the use of TRIPS-get out clauses. Despite the attempts by the international community and the civil society to enhance the access to antiretroviral treatment in the developing world, at the present date many eligible patients cannot afford the high prices on antiretroviral drugs. Thus, it renders necessary that the TRIPS Agreement is amended in order to establish a more balanced system, which ensures that not only the interests of pharmaceutical corporations but also the interests of patients are met.