TRIPs Meets AmyX: Does TRIPs Ameliorate or Exacerbate Imbalance in Pharmaceutical Development and Pricing?

The World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) was intended to universalize the protection of intellectual property rights, with special regard to their international trade-related aspects. Among other things, TRIPS mandated national treatment (art. 3) and most-favored-national treatment (art 4) with regard to the protection of intellectual property of nationals of all WTO member states. The belief and motive force behind the agreement was that protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights should contribute to the promotion of technological innovation and to the transfer and dissemination of technology. . . . (art.7) It is not at all clear that the post-Uruguay Round international regime has genuinely tended to support the objectives, even after the entry into force in January 2017 new TRIPS Article 31 bis, to encourage production and export of affordable generic medicines to other [WTO member states] that cannot domestically produce the needed medicines in sufficient quantities. . . . This paper seeks to examine the structure and objectives of TRIPS in relation to pharma development and pricing, to analyze the practical effects of the agreement on the international pharma market, and to assess the likelihood that the amended TRIPS will ameliorate any shortcomings in the achievement of its fundamental objectives