Balancing Pills and Patents: Intellectual Property and the HIV/AIDS Crisis
AbstractThe developing world faces a health crisis whose proportions threaten to overcome any economic and social gains it may have made after independence: this crisis is HIV/AIDS. In spite of the hundreds of people dying daily, the African continent (especially the sub-Saharan region) has been faced with a lack of medicine, medical personnel, expertise and infrastructure to deal with the dilemma. The first world has not been merciful in its application of patent laws relating to pharmaceuticals thereby making the drugs too expensive and therefore out of reach for many affected developing countries. This paper seeks to portray the desperate situation Africa presently finds herself in, including the inadequacy of her laws to deal with the international Intellectual Property regime devised by the developed world. It is argued that the international system proposed is a continuation of colonialism and only seeks to enslave the developing world farther, even though the TRIPS agreement allows for remedies to address disputes and national emergencies. |