TRIPS, Pharmaceutical Patents, and the HIV/AIDS Crisis: Finding the Proper Balance between Intellectual Property Rights and Compassion
![handle is hein.journals/wlsj7 and id is 189 raw text is: TRIPS, PHARMACEUTICAL PATENTS, AND THE HIV/AIDS
CRISIS: FINDING THE PROPER BALANCE BETWEEN
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND COMPASSION
I. INTRODUCTION
Patent protection plays an important role in promoting economic growth by
offering incentives for investment in the development of new products. One of
the requirements of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property (TRIPS) is that all member nations grant patents for pharmaceutical
druginventions.2 Recently, the issue ofaffordability of HIV/AIDS medications3
has caused debate on the proper strength of pharmaceutical patent protection.
Much of the conflict between those who support strong patent rights and those
who oppose them has focused on the use of compulsory licensing and parallel
imports as means to of lowering HIV/AIDS pharmaceutical prices in poorer
countries. Even liberal compulsory licensing and parallel imports, however, may
not sufficiently lower the cost of these pharmaceuticals to make them affordable
in the poorest countries.'
Intellectual property and trade were formally linked on a global basis as a result
of the TRIPS Agreement which was conducted under the umbrella of the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATh).s The World Trade
Organization (WTO), which succeeded the GATT, oversees the TRIPS and
dispute settlement between member states.6 The linkage between intellectual
1. Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights [hereinafter TRIPS
Agreement], Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Apr. 15, 1994
[hereinafter WTO Agreement], Annex 1C, THE RESULTS OF THE URUGUAY ROUND OF
MULTILATERALTRADENEGOTATIONS:THELEGALTExTS 321 (1999) [hereinafter LEGALTExTS].
2. Id art 27:1,70:8.
3. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is caused by the Human
Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). See Nat'l Inst. offHeath, HIV Infection and AIDS: An Overview,
athttp://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/hivinf.htm (May 2000). AIDS destroys the body's immune
system resulting in death from illness that might otherwise have been contained by a healthy
immune system. Seei Recently, new pharmaceutical drugs have been successful in preventing the
progression from HIV infection to AIDS, but these medications are too expensive for most HlV-
infected people in developing countries. See Lawrence K. Altman, The Dodor' Worik Promire and
Pei'l of New Di, gsfor AIDS, N.Y. TIMES, Feb. 8, 2000, at F1; see also Robert Weissman, In Foucs:
AIDS andDevelaing Countes: DemocratijngAccesstoEsentialMedidna,at http://www.foreignpolicy-
infocus.org/briefs/vol4/v4n23aids.html (Aug. 1999).
4. See Int'l Intellectual Prop. Inst, IHV/AIDS Pilot Project: To Deliver Patented Therapies &
OtherTreatentstoPatientsinDevelopingContes,athttp://www.iipiorgleng/projects/aids.htmoast
visited Nov. 1, 2000).
5. See RobertJ. Gutowski, Comment, TheMamiageofIntelledtnalProper yandIntervationalTrade
in the TRIPs Agreement. Strange Bedfellows or a Match Made in Heaven?, 47 BUFF. L. REV., 713, 714
(1999).
6. See Gabrielle Marceau, Transition from GATT to WTO: A Most Pragmatic Olperation, J.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/wlsj7&div=12&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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