Health Affairs, 23, no. 3 (2004): 155-166 doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.23.3.155 © 2004 by Project HOPE	New Online   Pay Cuts For Medicare Docs   Access To Care Woes   Public Coverage More Efficient   Empowering Consumers

This Article Figures Only Full Text (HTML) Reprint (PDF) Supplemental Exhibit Submit a response to this article View responses Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services E-mail this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to My Personal Archive Download to Citation Manager Reprints & Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (12) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Attaran, A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Attaran, A. Related Collections AIDS/HIV Health Reform International Issues Legal/Regulatory Issues Pharmaceuticals Research And Technology

Agreements

How Do Patents And Economic Policies Affect Access To Essential Medicines In Developing Countries?

This paper studies the relationship between patents and access to essential medicines. It finds that in sixty-five low- and middle-income countries, where four billion people live, patenting is rare for 319 products on the World Health Organization’s Model List of Essential Medicines. Only seventeen essential medicines are patentable, although usually not actually patented, so that overall patent incidence is low (1.4 percent) and concentrated in larger markets. This and other results shed light on the policy dialogue among public health activists, the pharmaceutical industry, and governments that is often based on mistaken premises about how patents affect corporate revenues or the health of the world’s poorest. Pragmatism and greater flexibility are urged, so that policy may better concentrate on the greater causes of epidemic mortality, which now pose unprecedented threats to global peace and security.

                      What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. J. Selgelid A Full-Pull Program for the Provision of Pharmaceuticals: Practical Issues Public Health Ethics, May 27, 2008; (2008) phn022v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. Sridhar Improving Access to Essential Medicines: How Health Concerns Can Be Prioritised in the Global Governance System Public Health Ethics, May 3, 2008; (2008) phn012v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. B. Ridley, H. G. Grabowski, and J. L. Moe Developing drugs for developing countries. Health Aff., March 1, 2006; 25(2): 313 - 324. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				K. Mulligan Medicaid Embraces Managed Care As Private Insurers Turn Away Psychiatr News, May 21, 2004; 39(10): 2 - 12. [Full Text]

eLetters: