Srividhya Ragavan is a Professor of Law and Director of the India Program at Texas A&M University School of Law, Texas, United States.

Amaka Vanni is an Assistant Professor at School of Law, University of Leeds, United Kingdom.

Introduction Access to Medicine and TRIPS Agreement: A Historiographic Mapping of the Tradescape Srividhya Ragavan and Amaka Vanni Part I: International Norm Setting and Patent Metamorphosis: First Generation 1. World Trade Organization: A Barrier to Global Public Health? Srividhya Ragavan 2. World Health Organization: Contributions to Access to Health and TRIPS Agreement Discourse Susan Isiko Štrba 3. From TRIPS to Access to Medicines: What's There in Between? Sergio Napolitano 4. Free Trade Agreements: Longer, Further, Deeper Impact on Pharmaceutical Patents Bryan Mercurio 5. From the TPP to USMCA: A High-Powered Battle over Biologics Burcu Kilic 6. African Union Continental Free Trade Area: Opportunities for New Regional Discourse? J. Janewa Osei-Tutu 7. U.S. Litigated Government Funded Patents in Europe and Japan: A First Look Teo Firpo and Michael S. Mireles Part II: State Action and the Access to Medicine Debate: Second Generation 8. Brazil: Patent Barriers and Access to Medicine through Public Health System Gabriela Costa Chaves, Maria Auxiladora Oliveira, and Jorge Antonio Zepeda Bermudez 9. China: From Struggle to Surge: China's TRIPS Experience and its Lessons for Access to Medicines Peter K. Yu 10. Canada: Access to Medicine in High-Income Countries Gaëlle Groux and Jeremy de Beer 11. India: Pharmaceutical Patents and Evergreen Battle for Access to Medicine Anand Grover 12. South Africa's Three Decades of Access to Medicine Discourse: Blight or Benefit Caroline B. Ncube 13. Thailand: Shooting Star for Access to Medicine through Compulsory Licensing Van Anh Le 14. United States: Unilateral Norm Setting Using Special 301 Michael Palmedo Part III: Global Patterns and Emerging Issues: Third Generation 15. Access to Medicines Activism: Collaboration, Conflicts, and Complementarities Brook K. Baker 16. GTPI: Experiences to Overcome IP Barriers to Increase Access to Medicine Felipe de Carvalho Borges da Fonseca, Marcela Fogaça Vieira, and Pedro Villardi 17. Private Sector: Right to Health Responsibilities of Pharmaceutical Companies Emmanuel Kolawole Oke 18. Competition: Can Excessive Pricing be Fixed through Abuse of Dominant Position? Shirin Syed 19. The Unique World of Pharmaceutical Intellectual Property Rights Emily Michiko Morris 20. Innovation Policies: Roadblocks to Establishing Sustainable Pharmaceutical Innovation Policies Doris Estelle Long 21. Not Just Patents and Data Exclusivity: The Role of Trademarks in Integrated IP Strategy - Where Lies the Public Interest? Graham Dutfield 22. Indigenous Knowledge: Bridging with Modern Medicine Anthony C. K. Kakooza 23. Digital Divide and Access to Medicine: The Debate Swaraj Paul Barooah Part IV: COVID-19 and Access to Medicines Lessons from COVID-19 for Medicine Access Amaka Vanni

The history of patent harmonization is a story of dynamic actors, whose interactions with established structures shaped the patent regime. From the inception of the trade regime to include intellectual property (IP) rights to the present, this book documents the role of different sets of actors - states, transnational business corporations, or civil society groups - and their influence on the structures - such as national and international agreements, organizations, and private entities - that have caused changes to healthcare and access to medication. Presenting the debates over patents, trade, and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), as it galvanized non-state and nonbusiness actors, the book highlights how an alternative framing and understanding of pharmaceutical patent rights emerged: as a public issue, instead of a trade or IP issue. The book thus offers an important analysis of the legal and political dynamics through which the contest for access to lifesaving medication has been, and will continue to be, fought.
In addition to academics working in the areas of international law, development, and public health, this book will also be of interest to policy makers, state actors, and others with relevant concerns working in nongovernmental and international organizations.