An Article in the Series: Symposium: Developments and Challenges in International Intellectual Property Law
Intellectual property rights (IPRs) are often conceived narrowly from the vantage
point of offering incentives for private sector investment in research and
development (R&D), but the legal regime of IPRs can also work to improve access to
public goods for global health, particularly for those disadvantaged by destitution and
disease. The WHO Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation
and Intellectual Property (GSPOA), adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2008,
calls for an “enhanced and sustainable basis for needs-driven, essential health research
and development relevant to diseases that disproportionately affect developing
countries.”1 How knowledge is generated, owned, and harnessed to support pro-poor
development is at the heart of this effort. New approaches to tiering, pooling, and
open-source collaboration have resulted from the struggle to deliver affordable
treatments for AIDS and neglected diseases. In examining how intellectual property
rights can most effectively and strategically support developing countries in
implementing this ambitious and potentially catalytic agenda in enabling innovation
for global health, this paper seeks to outline a coherent and strategic approach to
address human development needs and to facilitate the harnessing of innovation and
the sharing of knowledge for global health.
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