IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/polsoc/v36y2008i2p207-245.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Law, Politics, and Access to Essential Medicines in Developing Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Heinz Klug

    (University of Wisconsin-Madison, Klug@wisc.edu, School of Law at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa)

Abstract

This article argues that to advance the struggle for access to essential medicines, it is necessary to identify the global and local regimes that shape the rules that give impetus to particular policy options, while undermining others. In exploring the role of law and politics in this process, the author first outlines the globalization of a standardized, corporate-inspired, intellectual property regime. Second, the author uses the example of the HIV/AIDS pandemic to demonstrate how the stability of this new regime came under pressure, both locally and globally. Finally, it is argued that while the global HIV/AIDS pandemic and the social movements that emerged in response to government inaction have effectively challenged the TRIPS regime, this complex contestation has reached an unsustainable stalemate in which development aid, corporate, and non-governmental philanthropy is simultaneously providing increased availability to drugs while precluding a more lasting solution to the crisis of access to essential medicines in developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Heinz Klug, 2008. "Law, Politics, and Access to Essential Medicines in Developing Countries," Politics & Society, , vol. 36(2), pages 207-245, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:polsoc:v:36:y:2008:i:2:p:207-245
    DOI: 10.1177/0032329208316568
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0032329208316568
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0032329208316568?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sell,Susan K., 2003. "Private Power, Public Law," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521819145, September.
    2. Anonymous, 1947. "World Health Organization," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(3), pages 535-537, September.
    3. Anonymous, 1947. "World Health Organization," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 134-136, February.
    4. Anonymous, 1969. "I. United Nations," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(4), pages 971-989, October.
    5. Kaul, Inge & Conceicao, Pedro & Le Goulven, Katell & Mendoza, Ronald U. (ed.), 2003. "Providing Global Public Goods: Managing Globalization," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195157413.
    6. Virginia Vliet, 2004. "South Africa Divided against AIDS: a Crisis of Leadership," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Kyle D. Kauffman & David L. Lindauer (ed.), AIDS and South Africa: the Social Expression of a Pandemic, chapter 4, pages 48-96, Palgrave Macmillan.
    7. Sell,Susan K., 2003. "Private Power, Public Law," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521525398, September.
    8. Braithwaite,John & Drahos,Peter, 2000. "Global Business Regulation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521784993, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Olsen Tricia D. & Sinha Aseema, 2013. "Linkage politics and the persistence of national policy autonomy in emerging powers: patents, profits, and patients in the context of TRIPS compliance," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 15(3), pages 323-356, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Emilie Cloatre & Robert Dingwall, 2013. "“Embedded regulation:” The migration of objects, scripts, and governance," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(3), pages 365-386, September.
    2. Daniel F Robinson, 2010. "Locating Biopiracy: Geographically and Culturally Situated Knowledges," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(1), pages 38-56, January.
    3. Thomas Gehring & Benjamin Faude, 2014. "A theory of emerging order within institutional complexes: How competition among regulatory international institutions leads to institutional adaptation and division of labor," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 471-498, December.
    4. Cozzi, Guido & Galli, Silvia, 2022. "Covid-19 Vaccines, Innovation, and Intellectual Property Rights," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1095, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    5. Gjølberg Maria, 2011. "Explaining Regulatory Preferences: CSR, Soft Law, or Hard Law? Insights from a Survey of Nordic Pioneers in CSR," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(2), pages 1-33, August.
    6. Basheer Shamnad, 2010. "Turning Trips on Its Head: An "IP Cross Retaliation" Model for Developing Countries," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 3(2), pages 141-197, May.
    7. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2011. "Hither Thou Shalt Come, But No Further: Reply to "The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation: Comment"," NBER Working Papers 16966, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Bayer, Patrick & Marcoux, Christopher & Urpelainen, Johannes, 2013. "Leveraging private capital for climate mitigation: Evidence from the Clean Development Mechanism," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 14-24.
    9. Suma Athreye & Lucia Piscitello & Kenneth C. Shadlen, 2020. "Twenty-five years since TRIPS: Patent policy and international business," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 3(4), pages 315-328, December.
    10. Iain M. Cockburn & Jean O. Lanjouw & Mark Schankerman, 2016. "Patents and the Global Diffusion of New Drugs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(1), pages 136-164, January.
    11. Suzuki, Mao, 2020. "Profits before patients? Analyzing donors’ economic motives for foreign aid in the health sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    12. Jorge Iván Rincón Córdoba, (editor). & Nicolás Cabezas Manosalva, (editor)., 2021. "Derecho Administrativo Sanitario Tomo I. Derecho a la Salud, Salubridad Pública y Condiciones Sanitarias de las Ciudades," Books, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Derecho, number 1299.
    13. Ahmed, Nina, 2005. "Intergenerational Impact of Immigrants' Selection and Assimilation on Health Outcomes of Children," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 2005247e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    14. Haunss, Sebastian, 2013. "Enforcement vs. access: wrestling with intellectual property on the internet," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 2(2), pages 1-9.
    15. El-Bialy, Nora, 2010. "The role of institutions within the IPR enforcement: The case of de facto software protection in Egypt," Discussion Papers on Strategy and Innovation 10-02, Philipps-University Marburg, Department of Technology and Innovation Management (TIM).
    16. Leonhard Dobusch & Sigrid Quack, 2013. "Framing standards, mobilizing users: Copyright versus fair use in transnational regulation," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 52-88, February.
    17. A. Awad & Lakshmi Voruganti, 2012. "Measuring Quality of Life in Patients with Schizophrenia," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 183-195, March.
    18. Jandhyala, Srividya, 2015. "International and domestic dynamics of intellectual property protection," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 284-293.
    19. Tristan Auvray & Cédric Durand & Joel Rabinovich & Cecilia Rikap, 2020. "Financialization's conservation and transformation: from Mark I to Mark II," Working Papers hal-03079425, HAL.
    20. Dai, Rong & Watal, Jayashree, 2021. "Product patents and access to innovative medicines," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:polsoc:v:36:y:2008:i:2:p:207-245. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.