A licença compulsória de medicamentos como política pública de saúde

Abstract

Despite the fact that on the theoretical level the supremacy of human rights – especially the right to health – over the rules of international commerce is consolidated, especially after the results achieved in the Doha Round, the practical reality of the international diplomatic order showed itself to be permeable to the resistance imposed by the “centrifugal forces of fragmentation”. In other words, the strong economic interests of state (i.e., developed countries) and non-governmental (transnational pharmaceutical companies, in this case) actors result in precautions and selectivity to weaken the Kantian cooperative vision of international relations. Nevertheless, the compulsory licensing of medicine could be an example of a powerful instrument for the realization of the Fundamental Human Right to health, undermining, as a consequence, the effects of poverty and social exclusion and implementing, as a consequence, the right to development. The compulsory license is analyzed as a powerful instrument of health policy of the state in its duty to assure the right to health, through access to essential medicine for its population.