Fair Followers: Expanding Access to Generic Pharmaceuticals for Low- and Medium-Income Populations

Authors

Kevin Outterson, Boston University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2006

Editor(s)

Jillian Clare Cohen, Patricia Illingworth, Udo Schüklenk

ISBN

9781849642712

Publisher

Pluto

Language

en-US

Abstract

U.S. trade offi cials frequently employ the rhetoric of free riding and piracy when discussing intellectual property (IP) rights for medicines (Drahos with Braithwaite 2002; Benson 2005). The gentler term free rider is applied when developed country governments (OECD) use monopsony power to negotiate price discounts on patented pharmaceuticals (Outterson 2004, 2005b; U.S. Department of Commerce 2004; PhRMA 2005). Poorer governments usually lack suffi cient market power as a purchaser to negotiate discounts for their low- and middle-income populations. In these cases, governments and patients may resort to unlicensed generic drugs and compulsory licensing. In response, U.S. trade offi cials and IP owners infl ame the rhetoric and label such activity piracy.

Recommended Citation

Kevin Outterson, Fair Followers: Expanding Access to Generic Pharmaceuticals for Low- and Medium-Income Populations , in he Power of Pills: Social, Ethical and Legal Issues in Drug Development, Marketing and Pricing 164 (Jillian Clare Cohen, Patricia Illingworth, Udo Schüklenk ed., 2006).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/1786