Presenter: Minnah Gayed

Faculty Sponsor: Deepika Marya

School: UMass Amherst

Research Area: Globalization and Development

Session: Poster Session 6, 4:15 PM - 5:00 PM, Concourse, B3

ABSTRACT

Access to pharmaceuticals in the developing world, including many countries of sub-saharan Africa, consistently lags behind that of the developed world. This discrepancy has been highlighted during times of global health crisis, including the HIV/AIDS crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from developing countries in sub-saharan Africa reveals that they did not have enough pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to cover their populations during these crises, while many developed countries had a national surplus. More concerning is the lack of success in addressing barriers to access, leading to repetition of old patterns. Previous research identifies what many of these barriers to access are for sub-saharan Africa during the HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics individually. However, this research examines access spanning both crises and uses historical context to understand why barriers have persisted despite reform efforts. The findings identify restrictive intellectual property (IP) laws, as enshrined today in the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement, as a major factor limiting production and distribution of pharmaceuticals. Moreover, the universal enforcement of restrictive IP laws despite the disadvantage at which they place developing countries as opposed to their developed counterparts points to the larger issue of the power imbalance that exists between developed and developing countries in global trade negotiations. Future initiatives to increase access to pharmaceuticals should address this dynamic by pushing for fundamental reform of the TRIPS agreement and of the negotiating process at the World Trade Organization (WTO) if they hope to affect meaningful change.