Proteção internacional ao investimento e propriedade intelectual: impacto sobre políticas de saúde e acesso a medicamentos

Abstract

The core purpose of this study is to investigate the eventual impacts that international investment treaties imposes on the capacity of States to implement key public policies to ensure the Right to Health and access to medicines. It aims to understand, more specifically, the risks that certain clauses part of these agreements carries for intellectual property national systems of signatory countries, affecting political strategies that developing countries implement when facing public interest issues. From the literature review and qualitative analysis of a set of preferential agreements, it was observed that international investment agreements impact the international and national intellectual property rights protection, reducing countries and their innovation system institutions policy space to implement norms. This impact results from the utilization of clauses that substantially modifies the rules and includes enforcement mechanisms that goes beyond the minimum standards established at the multilateral level. Consequently, we can infer that there is a limitation on the capacity of States to make use of flexibilities available under the TRIPS agreement, crucial for countries when consolidating an intellectual property national system accountable to the needs and demands regarding public health and access to medicines.