Reconciling Intellectual Property Rights and Medication Costs
This reconciliation all boils down to one simple fact. Many third world countries are unable to provide decent medical care due to pharmaceutical companies who are refusing to license their intellectual property, i.e. medications, to companies at affordable prices.
Trade negotiations seem to falter between major distribution areas, such as the United States, Switzerland, Germany, and Japan, to wave their intellectual property rights. If they were to do so, smaller nations could develop more generic brands of medications for cheaper costs to the world’s imporverished countries.
Such an agreement could possibly help a struggling economy where many people, even in these providing countries, refuse medication due to costs. Reconciling the problems with intellectual property and medication costs could benefit areas such as the USA. Generic pricing could offset lower costs with a raising amount of consumers who take advantage of changes.
Until pharmaceutical companies feel that the infrastructure of countries such as India, where these generic medications could be manufactured, prove they have the capability to inexpensively produce generic quality, and also recoup expensives, there will be a problem with any major manufacturer relinquishing any rights to their intellectual property for the sake of saving more lives at lower costs.You thought this was good? Brace yourself: The History of Intellectual Property Taxation