Balancing Intellectual Property Protection with the Human Right to Health

Abstract

In 2003, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) newly infected an estimated five million people worldwide; three million died of complications related to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). 2 Since its discovery in the 1980s, AIDS has killed twenty-two million people worldwide, leaving thirteen million AIDS orphans. 3 The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that between thirty-four and forty-six million people around the world are living with the condition.4 While sub-Saharan African states have suffered the worst epidemics to date, UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO) predict new outbreaks in North Africa, India, China, states in Central Asia, and the Baltic states.5 HLV/AIDS rates in Latin America are also rising.6 Globally, costly anti-retroviral drugs that