Access To Medicines And Multidimensional Approach To The Protection For Public Health

Public health problems caused by the infectious diseases have been the hot and focus issues around the international societies. While traditional infectious diseases such as ADIS, malaria, and tuberculosis have not been effectively controlled yet, newly evolved diseases such as SARS and Ebola are giving a further threat to the already weakened global public health system. Patients with infectious disease unable to gain access to medicines should be the primary cause for the insufficient control of public health problems, which is most common in developing and underdeveloped countries. Protecting system for pharmaceutical patents stimulates medicine technological innovation. Yet the price of medicines is much too expensive because of the Market monopoly rights granted to patentees, which restricts access to medicines in developing countries thus has a negative effect on public health protection. The global status of public health has gained a general confirm by the international societies, and a global protecting mechanism is needed to cope with this matter.Public health problem is not only just an international issue, but also it is a multidimensional issue. An effective global protecting mechanism for public health is needed to cope with the public health issues. This kind of mechanism is not a top-down regulation of power. It is a mechanism where broad participation and cooperation of multiple parties are vital, of which the final goal is to come to an agreement and have a sustainable collaboration by reconciliation between parties of different interest. It not only includes formal regulations and systems, but also includes informal cooperative models such as public-private and private-private partnerships. Inter-governmental organizations, sovereign states, non-governmental organizations and pharmaceutical companies are the main subjects and powers in the global protecting mechanism for public health, and together they are to build up multidimensional protecting system. Broad participations of multiple subjects in the system means traditional governmental authority regulation is not feasible. Simultaneous applications of the mechanism to international, national and unofficial levels may be of much prospect.The international approach in regard with the global protecting mechanism for public health strengthens close cooperation between related international organizations. With the integrations of global economy and commerce deepen continuously, public hygiene, intellectual properties and international trade merge in different degrees. Apart from WHO, WIPO and WTO are also paying close attention to public health protection through practical actions. The World Intellectual Property Organization proposed couples of advice in the “Development Agenda” in response to public health issues, and the “Doha Declaration” confirmed that the TRIPS agreement should be an extensive measure in tackling public health matters around the globe. However, due to the mildness of international legal documents and limited liabilities of different entities, these three international organizations cannot do much in public health protection. “Promoting Access to Medical Technologies and Innovation” jointly issued by Secretariats of these three organizations provided new ideas in terms of global protection for public health. The document also confirmed basic Principles of Information Sharing, Complementary Advantages and Cooperation that the organizations should observe when faced with public health problems. At the same time, it also appealed that the collaborations should not be restricted to the three organizations. Other entities like inter-governmental organizations, sovereign states as well as non-governmental organizations and pharmaceutical companies should also consolidate to deal with public health problems and access to drugs in developing countries, in which way the multidimensional protecting system for public health can take its form.TRIPS agreement asks members to provide patent protections for medical products, which limits the developing countries from access to drugs, and impacts improvements of generic drug industries. Moreover, the United States and other developed countries advanced TRIPS-Plus clauses on a global scale through bilateral or multilateral system that are aimed at establishing higher standard over WTO system, which knocks out public health protection in developing nations. The US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement(TPP) symbols the global strategical high standard drug patent which the developed countries advocate has taken a big step forward. Faced with double pressures from global societies and developed countries, the Indian legislatures on pharmaceutical patent as well as judicial practice have paved a new way to public health protection that other developing countries should learn from. Not only has the TRIPS agreement set up minimum standard in the intellectual property protection, but also it has formulated flexibility provisions that members can choose to deal with public health issues. Indian “Patent Act”, when it was being revised, restricted pharmaceutical patent system's negative effects and limited the abuse of pharmaceutical patent rights by fully utilizing flexibility provisions of TRIPS amendment, public health protection being its basic principle. The requirements of public health protection by the Indian patent law are already showing some effects on judicial practice, and can be seen in Sorafenib's compulsory license case and Glivec's drug patent case.If the public health problems were not effectively solved, global crisis on public health would be around the corner. In response to these problems in developing countries, the developed countries should not just benefit themselves in such kind of circumstances. According to Independence Theory, the developed nations should be morally responsible when they benefit themselves from business in global healthcare issues, which requires them to fulfill their political commitments practically, financially and technologically support developing countries, and cooperate with them in order to take good care of public health matters in developing nations.On the unofficial level, non-governmental organizations are more and more competent in becoming major subjects of public health protection. Their public welfare and non-commercial natures decide that they can have bigger achievements in this field. They may affect international policy provisioning, support developing countries in terms of challenging pharmaceutical patent system proposed by transnational corporations, and coordinate multiple subjects in public health protection field to make them cooperative. What is of utmost importance is that some non-governmental organizations have been exploring new methods for medicine technological innovation and basic access to drugs, and that patent sharing mechanism which Médecins Sans Frontières(MSF) and Knowledge Ecology International(KEI) both advocate is already showing the effects and lowers the price of anti-retroviral medicines dramatically. In the global protecting mechanism for public health, non-governmental organizations should be crucial subjects. They should take an active part in the international public health talks and have a positive influence on it, play a coordinating role, and promote global protection for public health.