Journal of Intellectual Property Rights

Ahmed Eldakak ¹

Affiliations
1 College of Law, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, Abu Dhabi - 15551,, AE

Abstract

Many scholars argued that improving access to medicine requires major amendments to the patent system, which is structured according to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. This article argues that the argument is not necessarily true. Amending Article 6 of the TRIPS Agreement to adopt a national exhaustion rule for pharmaceutical patents would be sufficient to achieve a considerable improvement in access to medicine while simultaneously strengthening patent protection. This proposal encourages the pharmaceutical industry to adopt a price discrimination policy whereby Pharma would lower medicine prices in the lower-income countries. Accordingly, global access to new medicines such as COVID-19 medicines could be increased as these countries have the majority of poor people. At the same time, Pharma can continue to sell the same medicine in higher-income countries at higher prices, generating sufficient profits to incentivize research and development.

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