back
Dissertation
Immaterialgüter- und Wettbewerbsrecht

The Interface between Intellectual Property Law and Competition Law in the East Africa Community: A Regional Framework for Access to Essential Pharmaceuticals

The project examines the problem of access to essential medicines in the East African Community and explores how it can be solved through the use of TRIPS flexibilities while working within the constraints of, among other things, competition and trade rules.

Last Update: 07.12.21

Since the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the entry into force of its Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), the relationship between patent protection, access to medicines and trade has been controversial. The TRIPS agreement has been characterized by heated debates on how to achieve a balance between rights and obligations within intellectual property system and in particular, a balance between pharmaceutical patent protection and access to medicines. Although the existing literature on TRIPS agreement and access to medicines is abundant, the project brings a distinctive contribution by lucidly and pedagogically appraising the regional mechanism under TRIPS amendment using the East African Community (EAC) as a case study. The EAC adopted the East African Community Regional Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan of Action (EACRPMPoA) to serve as a roadmap in its bid to utilize TRIPS flexibilities in building regional pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity and improving access to medicines.

The project acknowledges that the challenge of access to essential medicines in EAC is a complex one in which IP law and the use of TRIPS flexibilities are just components. The challenge entails several non-IP related factors such as pharmaceutical market intelligence, competition law, global coordination, domestic research and manufacturing capabilities, technical and infrastructural capacities for medicines regulation, efficient pharmaceutical management, procurement systems etc. Therefore, the primary thesis of the project is that strategies focused on regionally coordinated attempts to address the IP impediments to access to essential medicines would be able to create an organizational infrastructure capable of dealing effectively with both IP and non-IP challenges.

Building on the philosophy of balance of rights and obligation and the mediation between utilitarianism and egalitarianism within TRIPS framework, the thesis argues for a pro-development interpretation of TRIPS and the revitalization of its object and purpose as captured in its articles 7 and 8.

Persons

Doctoral Student

Tolulope Adekola

Supervisor

Dr. Francisco Beneke

Dr. Wenwei Guan- PhD Supervisor

Main Areas of Research

III.2 Rechtsentwicklung in außereuropäischen Rechtsordnungen