You are here : Home > Research > IRDEIC theses

Thesis defended by Dobrina Rousseva-Ramphort The application of the TRIPS agreement in the field of pharmaceutical patents in India and Brazil" under the supervision of Olivier Blin (IRDEIC)
on the March 1, 2017
09h Thesis room

Thesis defended The application of the TRIPS agreement in the field of pharmaceutical patents in India and Brazil

Dobrina Rousseva-Ramphort Thesis : "The application of the TRIPS agreement in the field of pharmaceutical patents in India and Brazil"

Abstract :
This research work aims to present a comparative analysis of the Indian and Brazilian application of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Protection (TRIPS), within the framework of the World Trade Organisation, based on a detailed study of legislation and precedents in the field of drug patents. The TRIPS Agreement results in a reduced access to affordable medicines for the majority of the population in India and Brazil, due to the international harmonisation of patent rights protection it establishes.Yet, the substantial need for drugs to combat malaria and tuberculosis, as well as for antiretroviral (ARV) medicine represents a public health issue in these countries. Thus, both governments tend to reduce these negative effects, by enforcing TRIPS flexibilities in their legislation, such as the national margin of interpretation, the option of which is included in the Agreement. However, the degree of efficiency of this flexibility also depends on two external phenomena which aim to reinforce intellectual property rights protection. On the one hand, multinational pharmaceutical companies implement complex market strategies locally in order to consolidate their position. On the other hand, developed countries follow global multilateral cooperation policies with the objective to restrict the implementation of TRIPS flexibilities all around the world. As a consequence, India and Brazil favour a restrictive application of patentability criteria by local judges and support national drug price regulation policies. Moreover, Brazil is investing in enhanced control of the pharmaceutical companies' activities of market position reinforcement by competition authorities. Furthermore, both countries are developing international cooperation with developing countries as well as multi-partner collaboration in order to safeguard TRIPS flexibilities application related to national margins of interpretation of patentability criteria. This is not only within the WTO agreements, but also in other international partnership negotiations. Thus, it cannot be denied that the global consideration of public health issues in emerging countries like India and Brazil, although comparatively recent, have the potential to improve accessibility to affordable medicines.

Share this page
Twitter Facebook Pinterest

Document(s) to download :

Additional information

Jury :

Read more about the thesis


En appuyant sur le bouton "j'accepte" vous nous autorisez à déposer des cookies afin de mesurer l'audience de notre site. Ces données sont à notre seul usage et ne sont pas communiquées.
Consultez notre politique relative aux cookies