The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) came into force in 1995 in the ambit of the World Trade Organization (WTO). TRIPS obliges WTO country members to adopt higher standards of patent protection and, as a consequence, increases the costs of access to...

The Brazilian pharmaceutical industry has always been targeted by the society, due to the ethical drugs' high weight in the families' consumption budgets (especially within the poorer ones) and price raises traditionally above inflation (when the government does not run a price control). The...

Health care, including access to medicines, is granted as a citizen's right by the Brazilian Constitution through a national health system called Unified Health System (SUS). The Pharmaceutical Care Programmes of SUS are, quite often, the only way a large part of the population has to obtain...