Conflicting Interests, Competing Perspectives and Policy Incoherence: COVID-19 Highlights the Significance of the United Nations High-Level Panel Report on Access to Medicines

摘要

The issue of affordable and equitable access to innovative health technologies has been the subject of a longstanding global debate on intellectual property, trade, and public health. The current COVID-19 has put this problem in the limelight because governments, even in the economically advanced countries, are struggling to meet the health needs of their populations. Patent exclusivities add to the cost of health care by allowing supra-competitive prices of protected technologies. The United Nations (UN) High-Level Panel Report on Access to Medicines is a great help in identifying and articulating the nature of the public policy problems faced by countries in response to COVID-19. After analysing the Report and its key recommendations, this article evaluates the diverging responses to the Report which clearly highlight the conflicting interests of stakeholders. This article concludes that World Trade Organization (WTO) Member States need to revive the spirit of the Doha Declaration which was arguably the best multilateral effort to accommodate the conflicting interests.