Do pharmaceutical patents and mandatory licenses hinder or facilitate access to drugs?

Abstract

WTO legislation on products under patent, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) seeks to facilitate and standardize the regulation of such goods and their commercialization between countries. In the case of drugs it has been complicated and with controversial effects for economies with fewer resources. The pharmaceutical companies have proven to be a closed power group, and inflexible to changes in the status quo. This creates a barrier in the production of generic drugs by industries in other countries, preventing the dissemination and transfer of knowledge and technologies of this industry outwardly. The result of the above shows how less developed countries suffer from blocking access to drugs. Faced with this situation they have been established exemptions to patent rights that have caused a change in the strategy of these multinationals.