Access to medicines in Burkina Faso under the agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights and the Economic Partnership Agreement

Abstract

Cooperation between the European Union and Burkina Faso began several decades ago. Trade relations between the two partners are significant, with the European Union representing Burkina Faso's third-largest economic partner. Negotiated under the aegis of ECOWAS, the Economic Partnership Agreement signed in 2014 between the West African states and the European Union will govern relations between the European Union and Burkina Faso once it comes into force. With this in mind, this study sets out to analyze the impact of this agreement in a key area: access to medicines. The study takes into account both the TRIPS agreement and the EPA because according to the Cotonou Agreement, which precedes and justifies the EPA, the TRIPS agreement is the reference in terms of intellectual property rights. As a least-developed country and signatory to the TRIPS agreement, Burkina Faso has access to numerous flexibilities that may enable it to adopt health policies favorable to its situation. With regard to access to medicines, the TRIPS agreement states that patents protect inventors. There is a clear link between intellectual property and access to medicines. There are two opposing viewpoints on this subject. One is that there is a direct link between a weakened patent system and access to medicines, while the other is that patentability needs to be strengthened to encourage drug research. After an in-depth presentation of the main flexibilities of the TRIPS Agreement, this study will determine which one is suitable for Burkina Faso and which may be difficult to apply given the country's lack of resources. After studying the case of other least-developed countries in Africa, an appropriate course of action will be proposed to the EPA to facilitate access to medicines in Burkina Faso. Finally, the conclusion of this research will be to make proposals along the same lines that Burkina Faso could apply at the national level, but also with the help of its collaborators such as the EU, under the aegis of the EPA.