The Corporate Pharmaceutical Model and the Legacy of Doha: Whither a Global Consensus on Public Health Governance?

Abstract

This paper attempts to demonstrate that the present governance challenges facing policy makers in the WTO and its member states with regard to the public health crises in developing countries cannot be simply overcome by modifying the TRIPs Agreement. One argument pursued in this paper is that any move towards an ex peditious solution must first of all acknowledge the significance of market con straints for the corporate pharmaceutical supply model; and, second, that public health governance policies formulated by governments in both developing and developed countries revolve around the ideological and political preference for market norms and values as operatives of distributive justice. Whilst it is true that TRIPs does constrain the autonomy of governments in developing countries to better manage their public health needs, the paper poses the question as to whether the time is right to rethink the concept of public health and essential medicines in the age of globalization.