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  2. Could TRIPS save lives in Third World Countries by opening research articles?

Could TRIPS save lives in Third World Countries by opening research articles?

By clock on October 6, 2007.

That is one very interesting idea! This provision is usually used for getting medicines to 3rd world countries in times of emergency. So, why not research papers if the emergency warrants it? Gavin writes:

Imagine a scenario in which a developing country is facing a national health emergency, and there's a research article that contains information that is highly relevant to addressing that emergency. Let's say the emergency is an alarmingly high rate of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and a new study shows a major breakthrough in preventing such transmission. And let's say that unfortunately the article copyright is owned by the publisher (not the author), and the article is locked away behind a typical subscription barrier (usually around $30 per person to view it).

Could the government, asked Shahram, invoke TRIPs [The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights] to simply bypass the copyright holder and disseminate the article across the nation?

Tell Gavin what you think.

Tags
medicine
open science
Politics

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