Doctoral Thesis: The future of intellectual property rights and the right to the highest attainable standard of health under the COVID19 pandemic

The right to attain the best possible level of health requires the energic intervention of States. Pharmaceutical patent rights allegedly act to the detriment to access to medicines by stating high prices and therefore creating material barriers to the acquisition of medical products. Under the World Trade Organization (WTO) regime, the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) currently have flexibilities regarding patent protection on the grounds of protecting public health. However, recent State parties (India and South Africa as well as others) requested more energic legal disposals of protection of intellectual property rights to help in the struggle against the COVID19 pandemic. This research aims to answer whether intellectual property flexibilities in the (WTO) regime are adequate from the legal perspective considering global-related health initiatives such as the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator and others. And, accordingly, how should global health law shape the understanding of pharmaceutical patent law in international law?