Overriding drug and medical technology patents for pandemic recovery: a legitimate move for high-income countries, too

High-income countries that face potential legal hurdles (in world trade law and/or in the regulation of test data and market exclusivity) to effectively use compulsory licensing in the COVID-19 pandemic should consider taking measures now. [...]intellectual property rights will be a significant determinant of global access to COVID-19 medicines. [...]in these countries, prices are high and supplies are limited by Gilead’s exclusive patent rights and its finite capacity to manufacture the medicine. [...]in 2017 the US state of Louisiana explored its options to leverage a government use provision in state law to lower the price of the expensive hepatitis C treatments sofosbuvir and ledipasvir/sofosbuvir.10 Although the government use provision was not invoked in the end, it was an effective negotiation strategy with the pharmaceutical manufacturer that eventually led to a more affordable ‘netflix’ (or subscription-based payment) model for buying these hepatitis C drugs.11 Recently, government use licensing in the UK (called ‘Crown use’) has garnered much political and public attention following the rationing of lifesaving medicines due to their escalating prices.