RM Day 2

I think I’m addicted to drugs, more precisely to social medicine of drug access. There was a session given to SCOPH about access to drugs as human right which I thought was particularly interesting.

So basically it comes down to TRIPS, or Trade, Related Aspect of Intellectual Property of Right, which dictates that one or a few pharmaceutical companies has the sole right of distribution for a certain amount of time. This is meant to protect the pharmaceutical companies from free market competition in order for those companies to have enough fund for research and development, hence innovation. For a reason I do not yet understand, every countries are obliged to sign the TRIPS. Although it seems that by signing away monopoly of drug to one or few companies that the country would loose control over the price of drugs, the reality is that there are several ways in which public policies can put restraint over the price a certain drug is sold. The most common and effective way is to place a maximum price allowed for each class of drugs.

An example of lack of government intervention was given in the case of Columbia. A few years ago, due to misjudgement (or corruption) on behalf of the Columbian health ministry, they provided too much protection for the multinational pharmaceutical companies and provided no barrier to protect the public from frantically rising drug prices. This resulted in price for Ciprox antibiotic as high as $131 compared to just over $30 in another South American country.

I do wonder if the signing of TRIPS somehow is tied with the theme of corruption so often mentioned in South-American. If yes, how does one government benefit from such agreement? Is it traceable?