CIHR Grant

The CIHR funded project rests on a central hypothesis that effective implementation of an RTHIA tool of trade-related intellectual property rights in LMIC may broaden policy space to improve access to affordable medicines (including through the use of TRIPS flexibilities), and contribute to realizing the minimum core state duty to provide access to affordable medicines. The grant is an important first step towards realizing this goal and testing this hypothesis.

The CIHR grant will enable an interdisciplinary international team of researchers and former policy makers to strengthen the methodology as a precursor to seeking its implementation in key low and middle income countries. The catalyst project’s overall goal is therefore two-fold:

1) to lay the ground-work for securing comprehensive funding for a multi-year and multi-site operating grant to implement a strengthened RTHIA methodology, and

2) conduct research activities that offer to shed light on the multiple factors (global, political, cultural, social and economic) that may enable or constrain efforts to increase equitable access to affordable medicines in LMIC.