Patents, Human Rights, and Access to Medicines

An exploration of the tension between human rights and patent law, with reference to developing countries' access to affordable medicines.

Emmanuel Kolawole Oke (Author)

9781108472104, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 3 March 2022

400 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.6 cm, 0.41 kg

Patent rights on pharmaceutical products are one of the factors responsible for the lack of access to affordable medicines in developing countries. In this work, Emmanuel Kolawole Oke provides a systematic analysis of the tension between patent rights and human rights law, contending that, in order to preserve their patent policy space and secure access to affordable medicines for their citizens, developing countries should incorporate a model of human rights into the design, implementation, interpretation, and enforcement of their national patent laws. Through a comprehensive analysis of court decisions from three key developing countries (India, Kenya, and South Africa), Oke assesses the effectiveness of national courts in resolving conflicts between patent rights and the right to health, and demonstrates how a model of human rights can be incorporated into the adjudication of patent rights.

1. Introduction
2. Patent Policy, Access to Medicines, and the Regulatory Theory of Patent Rights
3. The Interface between Patent Rights and the Right to Health under International Human Rights Law
4. Incorporating a Model of Human Rights into the Adjudication of Pharmaceutical Patent Cases (Part One): Kenya as a Case Study
5. Incorporating a Model of Human Rights into the Adjudication of Pharmaceutical Patent Cases (Part Two): South Africa as a Case Study
6. Incorporating a Model of Human Rights into the Adjudication of Pharmaceutical Patent Cases (Part Three): India as a Case Study
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Intellectual property law [LNR], Comparative law [LAM], Human rights [JPVH]