Author: Hillary Wong

Abstract: Over the past few months, the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated industrialized countries in Asia, Europe, and North America. The outbreak will inevitably escalate in developing countries as well. While there is yet to be a proven cure or treatment for COVID-19, commonly referred to as the coronavirus, researchers are racing to test new and existing drugs in search of an effective panacea. As governments of developing countries ramp up efforts to fight the virus, they must take measures not only to contain the virus but also to ensure that COVID-19 treatments will be accessible and affordable following discovery.

Even in wealthy countries such as the United States, many COVID-19 patients have struggled with the cost of treatment, especially those who have suffered from severe COVID-19 and its subsequent complications [1]. COVID-19 patients are likely to face even more challenges accessing and affording medical treatment in developing countries, especially low-income countries with under-resourced healthcare systems. Furthermore, many individuals in low-income countries may be at high-risk of suffering severe COVID-19 because of weak lungs or compromised immune systems from chronic malnutrition, tuberculosis, or HIV.

In anticipation of the needs of their most vulnerable populations, governments of developing countries should prepare to issue compulsory licenses of any effective COVID-19 treatments. Compulsory licensing, a provision in the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS Agreement”), enables governments to supply its citizens with generic versions of patented treatments either through domestic production or foreign imports. As will be discussed below, compulsory licensing was used as a successful policy tool for improving access to antiretroviral drugs in the face of the AIDS epidemic. While there is no approved treatment for COVID-19 at present, national governments are legally entitled to issue compulsory licenses and should not shy away from this policy option when a treatment is available.

Citation: Wong, Hilary. “The case for compulsory licensing during COVID-19.” Journal of Global Health vol. 10,1 (2020): 010358. doi:10.7189/jogh.10.010358

Full Article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7242884/