These are neither the best of times nor the worst of times for the pharmaceutical industry, or for global public health. Media reports regarding recent legal developments would suggest that the originator pharmaceutical industry is facing a new and dangerous threat to its long-term welfare,...

The WHO Global Strategy and Plan of Action mandated the Director General to support transfer of technology and local production of medicines in developing countries. This paper briefly lays out the conditions for local production in Africa and describes the on-going work program of the WHO...

Pharmaceutical products are developed, approved, manufactured, traded, and used under complex and demanding regulatory schemes. While the intensity of regulation varies substantially among countries, lightly regulated markets are the exception, particularly from an economic standpoint. In this...

On August 30, 2003, the member countries of the WTO adopted the Decision on Implementation of Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health. This Decision provides flexibility for the export of pharmaceutical products under compulsory license (which flexibility...

New information technologies enable individuals in disparate locations to conduct cutting-edge research, to move that research into the development and testing of new medicines, to manufacture high-quality products, and to move those products to patients around the world. Conceptually, the world...

The overall conclusion of this study is that domestic pharmaceutical producers in Colombia will face increasing challenges from foreign enterprises if and as the market is further opened to competition. If there is a national interest in maintaining or improving the local and global market...