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3 Chi. J. Int'l L. 47 (2002)
TRIPS, Pharmaceuticals, Developing Countries, and the Doha Solution

handle is hein.journals/cjil3 and id is 53 raw text is: TRIPS, Pharmaceuticals, Developing Countries, and the Doha Solution Alan 0. Sykes* Pharmaceutical prices in the developing world have been much in the news lately. The bulk of the attention stems from the HIV/AIDS epidemic which affects many developing countries acutely, and where much of the infected population is said to be unable to obtain effective therapies because of their prohibitive cost. The annual cost of advanced retroviral therapies in South Africa, where one in eight persons is thought to be infected, is said to be about $12,000, far beyond the means of most South Africans.1 Only about 5 percent of the 1 million citizens of Thailand believed to be infected are able to afford the AIDS therapies prescribed to them.2 Much of the problem is attributed to the prices charged by pharmaceutical companies for their patented medications. A UN study reports, for example, that 150 mg of the HIV drug fluconazole costs $55 in India, where the drug does not enjoy patent protection, as compared to $697 in Malaysia, $703 in Indonesia, and $817 in the Philippines, where the drug is patented. Similarly, the HIV treatment known as AZT costs $48 per month in India, as compared to $239 in the United States, where patent protection exists. Developing nations where patents are in place seek to reduce those prices with measures that the pharmaceutical manufacturers say would infringe their intellectual property rights. Some of these initiatives have already brought forth legal challenges. South Africa was the target of litigation initiated by a number of pharmaceutical manufacturers over South Africa's Medicines and Related Substances Control Act of * Frank & Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law, University of Chicago, The Law School. My thanks to Mike Mullican for able research assistance. 1. Judy Rein, International Governance Through Trade Agreements: Patent Protection for Essential Medicines, 21 NwJ Ind L & Bus 379, 400 (2001). See also Frederick Abbott, The TRIPS-Legality of Measures Taken to Address Public Health Crises: A Synopsis, 2001 Widener L Symposium J 71. 2. Rein, 21 NwJ Ind L & Bus at 400 (cited in note 1). 3. United Nations, Report of the High Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, The Impact of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights on Human Rights, UN Doc E/CN.4/Sub.2/2001/13 at 14, para 44 (2001) (UNCHR Report).

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