The Covid-19 pandemic and the concept of the international public domain with regard to vaccine patents. Tribute to our friend, Bernard
- Autores: Jorge Alberto Kors
- Localización: Revue internationale de droit économique, ISSN 1010-8831, Vol 34, Nº. 4, 2020, págs. 427-434
- Idioma: francés
- Enlaces
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Resumen
Is it legitimate to suggest that there is a need for a patent system that differentiates the protection of pharmaceutical products from that of other branches of production? In the doctrinal field, the debate was reignited during the COVID-19 pandemic when the United Nations promoted the declaration of vaccines as a global public good against this serious and fatal disease. It was necessary to ask whether a drug can be considered a simple commodity or if there is a conflict of values between patent law—which grants a monopoly to the owner of an invention—and the right to public health and access to medicines, which the main international treaties consider to be a human right that is far superior to nations’ commercial rights. When this is all over and we have undone the devastation caused by the pandemic, legal theory must come to terms with this debate about the hierarchy of values at stake and the need to establish a new legal regime for patents that protect the products and processes of the pharmaceutical industry in a different and more equitable way. We must follow the path begun by the Doha Declaration which was born from another serious attack on global public health: HIV/AIDS. I took advantage of this debate to reconstruct the living thoughts of Professor Bernard Remiche, which seemed to me to be the best way to honor him. Bernard in doctrine and Bernard in action: he had an influence on so many of us.
