Bioprecariousness. The power of patents and their impact on Public Health

Abstract

This article is focused on the analysis of the power of patents and their role in the current confrontation between the right to (public) health and the right to Intellectual property (patents), which are both human rights recognised by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This power is based on the monopoly controlling life (biological material) by means of biotechnological patents or “patents of life”. The Spanish Patent and Trademark Office defines a patent as “a title recognising the right to exclusively exploit an invention, preventing third parties from manufacturing, selling or using it without prior consent of the owner”. This monopoly involves high prices for patented products, which condemns thousands of people to what we call “bioprecariousness” defined as structural violence against life due to the lack of access to basic patented products (vaccines, seeds, medicines, treatments and tests). Bioprecariousness has also been present in the Covid-19 pandemic, given that there has been an unequal distribution of vaccines between rich and poor countries. We propose a new ethical framework and ethical patent committees aimed at setting ethical limits to patents according to the criteria of responsibility and caution; global justice, and capabilities and human development.