Public Health and Intellectual Property

As a consequence of the growing life expectancy there is a growing cost for public health policy, since there is a growing number of degenerative diseases. There are new diseases appearing and also the necessity of new medicaments in order to grant a better life quality for the population. But the cost to acquire these new medicaments is increasing and that doesn’t happen to the income, especially in developing countries. In order to satisfy the necessities of the society, the pharmaceutical industry has been trying to develop researches. Under these conditions the public policies must be oriented, but not in order to hinder the technological development; and one of these possibilities is the patent system. It must also be considered that new diseases appear and that the immunological system must be strengthened as a consequence of an acquired resistance to virus and bacteria to the used medicaments. The constant evolution of the health condition and the need of security in the use of new medicaments, which also include its cost, consist in a frequent dilemma of the policy makers. It must be considered that the simple fact of importing technology does not mean the capacity to develop it, which has to be done by establishing adequate policies in order to fulfil the international completion. This question becomes delicate, when considering the case of pharmaceutical products, where the patent protection has the objective of market domination. We must also consider that technology transfer will be hindered if there is the possibility of losing markets, by the implementation made by the importer, in order to develop local technological procedures. Technology has its economic importance, which originated from its capacity to improve equilibrium between social and economical development. Technological policies are one of the most relevant bases for economical development. This analysis involves two questions: how can the legal system grant the improvement of the pharmaceutical industry, in order to implement the necessary innovation with the aim of assuring life quality? How assure that the State has the necessary means to implement health policies that assure the objective of the first question?