Background

The development of a RTHIA of trade-related intellectual property rights is grounded in two converging trends: growing recognition of health impact assessment as a critical human rights and health equity tool, and growing concern about the restrictive impact of trade-related intellectual property rights on access to medicines. Impact assessments are increasingly recognized as a potentially useful approach to mitigating the impact of trade-related intellectual property rights on access to affordable medicines in low and middle income countries. Almost two billion people (one third of the global population) lack regular access to essential medicines, a figure that rises to over half the population in some low-income countries in Africa and Asia (WHO, 2004, 3). While access to medicines is determined by several factors, such as rational use, adequate infrastructure, and sustainable financing (WHO, 2004, 24), pricing can have a disproportionate impact on access. Patents are primary determinants of drug prices, and are protected internationally under the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

Concerns about the price impacts of these and other international intellectual property rules have led human rights bodies to increasingly recommend the use of impact assessment. This project seeks to specifically develop a RTHIA tool that policy makers and social groups can use to assure that trade-related intellectual property rights do not restrict access to affordable medicines.

For additional resources on the right to health and human rights impact assessment please check out the resources section.