Regional Cooperation, Intellectual Property Law and Access to Medicines

This book examines the potential for regionalization of intellectual property law and policy as a means of improving pharmaceutical access for least developed countries. It takes the East African Community as a case study of developing and least developed countries to illustrate why and how a regional collective approach is preferred.

Tolulope Anthony Adekola is a Research Fellow at TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland, Australia.

1. Setting the Scene: The Context and the Problem; 2. Contextual Analysis of East African Countries' Healthcare Systems and Epidemiology; 3. Leveraging TRIPS Flexibilities for Pharmaceutical Access- A Survey of EAC Partner States' Patent Laws; 4. TRIPS Amendment's Special Regional Treatment- An Appraisal; 5. The Feasibility or Otherwise of Regional Pharmaceutical Production in the EAC; 6. Regional Cooperation, Human Rights and Equitable Vaccine Distribution - The COVID-19 Pandemic Experience; 7. Charting the regional cooperative path