ENHANCING ACCESS TO MEDICINE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES THROUGH PARALLEL IMPORTATION AND THE REFORM OF THE PUBLIC PROCUREMENT PROCESS

This dissertation examines how parallel importation can be utilized within the provisions of the 1994 WTO TRIPS Agreement to enhance access to medicine, particularly for developing and least developing countries. The tensions and controversies inherent in the WTO architecture on trade in pharmaceutical products has precipitated conversations on how to enhance access to medicine in regions of the world with limited manufacturing capabilities yet faced with a significant burden of infectious and communicable diseases that attract little research and development funding. I review the interface between the branches of international law impacted by the access to medicine debate; international human rights law, international trade law, and international intellectual property law in Chapter Two. The idea is to situate the flexibilities, such as parallel importation within the TRIPS Agreement as an area which states have some policy space to accommodate domestic public interest concerns. Situating the flexibility requires revising how conventional rules of interpretation of international law apply to the interpretation of the TRIPS Agreement. Once the rules of interpretation are revisited, I then examine how parallel importation can be utilized to enhance access to medicine. However, parallel importation can best work in an environment where public procurement systems are organized to promote transparency and accountability, developing and least developing countries should review their public procurement systems to be consistent with the plurilateral WTO Agreement on Government Procurement