Pharmaceutical Companies and Global Lack of Access to Medicines: Strengthening Accountability under the Right to Health

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These three broad categories are taken from Pogge T. Rimmer M. Rubenstein K. , “Introduction: Access to Essential Medicines: Public Health and International Law,” in Pogge T. Rimmer M. Rubenstein K. , eds., Incentives for Global Public Health: Patent Law and Access to Essential Medicines (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010): At 3–8.

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For example, many countries may lack the necessary infrastructure, such drug manufacturing facilities, to make use of voluntary or compulsory licenses or the technical capacity to take advantage of opposition or revocation procedures.

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Although there are some notable exceptions to this, such as recognition of the Holy See, various insurgents, and so on: Shaw M. , International Law , 5th ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003): At 177.

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International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, “The Pharmaceutical Industry and Global Health: Facts and Figures,” Issue 2011, at 47; and International Monetary Fund, “Nominal GDP List of Countries for the Year 2010,” World Economic Outlook Database, September 2011, available at <http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2011/02/weodata/index.aspx> (last visited May 10, 2012).

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Id., at 21.

Id., at 18.

Two former UN High Commissioners for Human Rights, Mary Robinson and Sergio Vieira de Mello, have written that the term “organs of society” in the Declaration includes corporations. Robinson M. , “The Business Case for Human Rights,” in Visions of Ethical Business, Financial Times Management (London: Financial Times Professional, 1998): 14–17, at 14; Vieira de Mello S. , “Human Rights: What Role for Business?” New Academy Review 2, no. 1 (2003): 19–22, at 19.

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For example, the right to life, a paradigmatic first-generation, negative right, imposes a positive duty upon the state to establish and maintain law enforcement and judicial mechanisms. At the same time, the right to health, a second-generation, positive right, imposes negative duties upon the state, including the right to be free from interference by the state in matters concerning one's health, for example through non-consensual medical treatment and experimentation, and the right to be free from discrimination in access to health goods and services.

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GlaxoSmithKline's 2010 Corporate Responsibility Report has a section titled “Access to Medicines,” in which there is a sub-section titled “Engaging on the human right to health.” This sub-section references the company's response to the former Special Rapporteur's mission to the company in 2008. It states: “Pharmaceutical companies, including GSK, must make their medicines as affordable as possible to people in the world's poorest communities, in a sustainable manner. We must invest in research into diseases of the developing world because new prevention tools and treatments are urgently needed. We must work with others to find innovative solutions to delivering our medicines and vaccines to the people who need them most.” It was available at <http://www.gsk.com/responsibility/down-loads/GSK-CR-2010-Access.pdf>.

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Id., at 9; id., at 14.

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Id., at para. 8.

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Id., at 532.

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UN Doc. A/63/263, (August 11, 2008), Annex, Preamble (h).

Id., at Preamble (i).

Id., at Annex, para. 1 (emphasis added).

Id., at Annex, para. 2 (emphasis added).

Id., at para. 46.

Id., at Annex, para. 8.

Id., at Annex, para. 14.

Id., at Annex, Neglected diseases, Commentary.

UN Doc. E/C.12/2000/4, August11, 2000, at para. 59.

UN Doc. E/C.12/2000/4, August 11, 2000, at para. 59.

UN Doc. A/63/263, August 11, 2008, at Annex, para. 9.

Id., at Annex, Preamble (j).

A/HRC/11/12/Add.2, at para. 105.

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