A consistent charge against the patent system is that it denies the poor access to critical medicines. This belief led the UN Secretary General to launch his High Level Panel on Access to Medicines that is supported by groups like Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM). The Panel is to “review and assess proposals and recommend solutions for remedying the policy incoherence (emphasis added) between the justifiable rights of inventors, international human rights law, trade policies and public health in the context of health technologies.” As our State Department observed, this focus “suggests predetermined outcomes” blaming health problems on patents. Fortunately, two recent responses critically examine the theories driving this anti-patent crusade.
