Flexible Drug Patent Terms: A Proposed Mechanism to Stimulate Global Innovation and Health

A major problem for humankind rests in the seemingly unresolvable competing vested interests found within the global patent system. Adequate access to medicines, particularly in developing countries, is necessary to promote health and ultimately, economic development, but the prolonged time period required for the successful R&D of novel products to make medicines available (one component of accessibility) means that private sector actors must be incentivized by being awarded exclusivity rights. This comes at the expense of affordability (the other component of accessibility). Clearly, reform proposals need to facilitate the finding of the balance that needs to be struck between incentives for drug development and access to medicines. This paper presents a theoretical proposal for global drug patent system reform that attempts to find the balance between these interests in the form of flexible patent terms.