Propiedad intelectual y salud pública en países en desarrollo: vino viejo en odres nuevos

María Cecilia Sanmartin

doi:10.24215/23143924e067

Authors

María Cecilia Sanmartin Universidad Nacional de Quilmes

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24215/23143924e067

Keywords:

intellectual property, COVID-19, patents, knowledge, vaccines

Abstract

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, transnational pharmaceutical companies worldwide joined the race for the accelerated development of a vaccine against COVID-19. However, the developments showed a concentration of the design and production of these vaccines in developed countries, accentuating the differences between the developed or central countries and the periphery/semi-periphery, in geopolitical terms. With the massification of informational goods and the the new “knowledge economy”, a redefinition process of intellectual property took place, because of the difficulty of appropriation of (tacit) knowledge and numerous risks of piracy. The jurisdictional expansion of intellectual property through the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Aspects Agreement (TRIPS) strongly contributed to accentuate the center-periphery dependence, by aligning and homogenizing (under the parameters, and in favor of, the central countries) the legislations about intellectual property of developing countries belonging to the World Trade Organization. In this context, large pharmaceutical companies worldwide concentrate capital, know-how and patents, remaining on the technological frontier, while depending on the technological and production capabilities of the semi-periphery, thus intensifying the dynamics of dependency. Different initiatives, such as the request for temporary exemption from TRIPS and the launch of a vaccine technology transfer hub in South Africa, sought to reduce these asymmetries between the center and the periphery in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, with dissapointing results. The companies that own the intellectual property rights associated with the vaccine technologies refused to license their patents and share the tacit knowledge involved in the processes. In turn, many developed countries, members of the World Trade Organization, refused the TRIPS temporary exemption. In this way, the regulations, the big pharmaceutical companies and the governments of developed countries, constrained this type of initiatives that try to achieve a more equitable access to health throughout the world.

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