La salud y el acceso a los medicamentos. Un análisis del derecho y la participación de las empresas farmacéuticas

One of the most controverted topics of human rights protection is the role of non-State actors in guaranteeing the rights of individuals since in most cases regional and universal organizations have purely focused their attention on the responsibility of States alone. Accordingly, relevant scholars have urged the need for international law to provide clear and stricter provisions which aim at regulating the conduct of such peculiar actors. Yet, the current international legal realm demonstrates that no legally binding provisions have been adopted and mere soft law instruments have been endorsed at the intergovernmental level. The non-binding character of these instruments provides sufficient food for thought for a deep examination of the existing related international legal framework (lex lata) in light of the need to rethink regulations on the matter under consideration (lex ferenda). To this end, the article analyses the participation of non-State actors in the protection of human rights and studies the role played by pharmaceutical companies in relation to the right to health. The work is structured in three parts: firstly, the paper clarifies the legal framework concerning the right to health; secondly, the article proposes a critical study of the part carried out by pharmaceuticals companies in relation to access to medicines. Finally, the article proposes some conclusions