Access to medicines: patents and generic drugs. The consequences of considering drugs as a market commodity and not as a social value

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to reflect on the difficulties in the access to medicines, one of the main problems in public health of developing countries. Possible causes will be analyzed, using as a starting point the concept of drug as a market commodity rather as a social value. This reflection mainly focus on the relationship between the prices of these products and the protection of intellectual property through patents of drugs, defined as the center of the conflicts in the last decade between the Pharmaceutical Industry and the developing countries.

The main proposals implemented to allow access to medicines are considered, emphasizing the generic drug policy as a whole regional model to confront the current research, production and marketing oligopoly.