Do you think that intellectual property rules serve as a obstacle to the right to access healthcare at international level? Comment (200 Words)
Refer - The Hindu
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 4 years
KEY POINTS
· If anything, since the onset of COVID-19, we’ve only seen a reaffirmation of intellectual property rules that have served as a lethal barrier to the right to access healthcare over the last few decades.
· India and South Africa submitted a joint petition to the World Trade Organization (WTO), requesting a temporary suspension of rules under the 1995 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
· A waiver was sought to the extent that the protections offered by TRIPS impinged on the containment and treatment of COVID-19.
· The request for waiver has, since, found support from more than 100 nations. But a small group of states the U.S., the European Union, the U.K. and Canada among them continues to block the move.
· In India, the question of marrying the idea of promoting invention and offering exclusive rights over medicines on the one hand with the state’s obligation of ensuring that every person has equal access to basic healthcare on the other has been a source of constant tension.
· This change in rule allowed generic manufacturers in India to grow. As a result, life-saving drugs were made available to people at more affordable prices.
· In the proposal’s vision, countries which fail to subscribe to the common laws prescribed by the WTO would be barred from entry into the global trading circuit.
· We cannot continue to persist with rules granting monopolies which place the right to access basic healthcare in a position of constant peril.
