Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines in Africa A Regional Framework for Access Routledge Research in Intellectual Property Series

A major target of Goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015 is the elimination of ?the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases? and combating ?hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases?. Intellectual property (IP) has been identified as one of the factors impeding access to affordable medicines in developing countries, especially in relation to the HIV pandemic.

This book examines the scope of the existing flexibilities in international IP law for promoting access to medicines. It analyses the factors accounting for the underutilisation of the flexibilities in Africa and the measures that African countries may adopt to address the IP barriers to access to medicines. It explores the regional strategies that Africa can adopt to resolve the tension between IP regimes and access to medicines. It also highlights how trade liberalisation and regional integration can play crucial roles in enhancing the use of TRIPS flexibilities, local pharmaceutical manufacturing and access to medicines in Africa.

By adopting qualitative research methods to investigate how African countries may effectively use IP to serve public health purposes through the stratagem of regional integration, this book will be a valuable contribution to the existing literature on IP.

1: Introduction; 2: The TRIPS Compulsory Licensing Regime and Access to Medicines; 3: Compulsory Licensing and Access to Medicines in Africa; 4: The TRIPS Regime for Test Data Protection and Access to Medicines; 5: The Exhaustion Doctrine, Parallel Trade and Public Health; 6: Pharmaceutical Patents and the Obligation to Protect Health; 7: Patents for Pharmaceuticals and the Human Right to Development; 8: Regional Trade Agreements, TRIPS Plus Provisions and the African Access to Medicines Conundrums; 9: Free Trade and Economic Collaboration as Paradigms for Access to Medicines; 10: Index

Olasupo Owoeye, LL.B, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.