Resolved: Equitable access to pharmaceuticals should be prioritized over protecting intellectual property rights.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58445/rars.4302Keywords:
IPR, Intellectual Property Rights, Public PolicyAbstract
Confronting the recent COVID-19 pandemic has raised grave concerns regarding future epidemics with the potential to inflict severe casualties worldwide. This has intensified the need for improved countermeasures and brought the debate surrounding equitable access to pharmaceuticals into question. While intellectual freedom and high accessibility are ethical and respectable objectives that should be upheld, certain aspects of equitable access raise doubts about its applicability to the real world. These challenges include the unfeasibility of equitable access, existing flexibilities, and the high possibility of counterfeit drugs. It reveals that such prioritization remains an idealistic approach rather than an accountable solution. This paper thereby opposes equitable access being prioritized over intellectual property rights protection of pharmaceuticals.
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