International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine - Volume 13, issue 2-3
Purchase individual online access for 1 year to this journal.
Price: EUR 155.00
Impact Factor 2024: 0.9
The International Journal of Risk and Safety in Medicine is concerned with rendering the practice of medicine as safe as it can be; that involves promoting the highest possible quality of care, but also examining how those risks which are inevitable can be contained and managed.
This is not exclusively a drugs journal. Recently it was decided to include in the subtitle of the journal three items to better indicate the scope of the journal, i.e. patient safety, pharmacovigilance and liability and the Editorial Board was adjusted accordingly. For each of these sections an Associate Editor was invited. We especially want to emphasize patient safety. Our journal wants to publish high quality interdisciplinary papers related to patient safety, not the ones for domain specialists. For quite some time we have also been devoting some pages in every issue to what we simply call WHO news. This affinity with WHO underlines both the International character of the journal and the subject matter we want to cover. Basic research, reports of clinical experience and overviews will all be considered for publication, but since major reviews of the literature are often written at the invitation of the Editorial Board it is generally advisable to consult with the Editor in advance. Submission of news items will be appreciated, as will be the contribution of letters on topics which have been dealt with in the journal.
Abstract: One third of the world's population lacks access to essential drugs. In the most impoverished parts of Africa and of Asia more than half the population do not have access to such drugs (WHO, 1999). Many effective remedies are and have been for many years out of reach of the people in developing countries. Because of globalization and new international trade rules the situation may even get worse in the near future. Globalization demands for new approaches to protect and further the basic human right to access to health care.
Abstract: Patent rights establish a price level for medicines that makes them unaffordable for the majority of the people in the world. This paper presents some main consequences of the influence of patents on the markets for drugs, and provides some economic arguments that might be useful in the discussion of patent rights. Patents for essential medicines have unacceptable social short run effects. Arguments that in the long run they provide incentives to promote invention seem uncertain and poorly justified. A system of compulsory licensing inside the WTO TRIPS agreement will work better. The paper is not the result of original…research by the author, but it attempts to assist in understanding certain of the economic arguments which are advanced in favour of patent rights, and to consider how such rights influence consumers of medicines.
Show more