TRIPS and Innovative Capacity of Bangladesh’s Pharmaceutical Industry: Promotion of Access to Essential Medicine

Abstract

The WTO agreement on Trade- Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) evolved some significant flexibilities in the Intellectual Property Rights on pharmaceutical product, especially regarding right of access to affordable medicine for the developing and least developed countries people as recognized in its Doha Declaration and in a related post-declaration decision. However, provisions of granting uniform character of pharmaceutical patents in all developing and lest developed countries put forward a strong debate over the globe for ensuring access to essential medicine to the poorer section of the member states of the WTO. Though Bangladesh, as a least developed country, has extended time up to 2016 to implement the pharmaceutical patent complying with the provisions of the TRIPS, such flexibilities seem to be a great challenge especially for Bangladesh where local technological capabilities and developed infrastructures to produce generic version of medicine still in nascent stage. In this context, this article demonstrates whether, in term of socio-economical conditions of the developing and least developed countries, this Western-style of IP provisions, is suited for Bangladesh. This paper seeks to explore and argue that in the absence of a strong institutional innovative capacity and the local technical expertise, whether Bangladesh’s pharmaceuticals sector can be able to supply marginal-cost substitutes of essential drug to other developing and least developed countries in the frame work of TRIPS flexibilities. To find out an effective and comprehensive solution this paper concentrates on the innovative capacity and competitiveness of the pharmaceutical sector and status of current pharmaceutical regulation and patent law in Bangladesh