Forbes: U.N. Health Panel Attacks IP Rights Not Viruses
Lorenzo Montanari, executive director of the Property Rights Alliance, and Philip Thompson, fellow at the Property Rights Alliance

“The U.N. High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines (UNHLP) … report attacks the ‘market-driven’ system and encourages countries to compulsory license any medicine they want …, de-link R&D costs from prices by replacing private funding with public subsidies, and re-write TRIPS Plus trade agreements. These Robin Hood policies are fanciful, erroneous, and doomed to fail. … The evidence supports protection of [intellectual property rights (IPRs)] as a key ingredient to increasing income and innovation. … [IPRs] ensure creators will have exclusive right to own and profit from their work — incentivizing continued efforts to discover and create. … The short-sighted policies recommended by the UNHLP would sacrifice … emerging pharmaceutical industries and future innovations for a stagnant present. As the U.N. revisits this issue it is hoped they also acknowledge that low- and middle-income countries have knowledge to protect as well as the follow on benefits of strong property rights” (10/12).