Legal analysis of Indonesia's government use of patented anti-retroviral medication to address the public emergency of the HIV/AIDS epidemic = Analisa pelaksanaan patent oleh pemerintah Indonesia untuk obat-obatan anti-retroviral dalam mengatasi epidemik HIV/AIDS
Daftar Isi:
- Patented pharmaceutical products can result in various concerns with regard to the price and accessibility when, inter alia, the production does not meet the market demand and need. Particularly for developing countries such as Indonesia, an epidemic that affects public health is a highly alarming issue, and during these circumstances, pharmaceutical products are urgently required. Indonesia faced an HIV/AIDS epidemic, where the number of people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS are vastly increasing at a very alarming rate every year. The medication that could sustain the effects of the HIV/AIDS disease are anti-retroviral medication – which many of its active substances are patented by corporations who have invested their research, time and funding into discovering such pharmaceutical product. As a member of the World Trade Organization, Indonesia is faced with an issue of respecting the monopoly rights conferred by the patent holder (pursuant to the object and purpose of patents under the TRIPS Agreement), and to provide such anti-retroviral medication to the population in Indonesia who are diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. In response to the national issue, the government deemed that the grave effects of the HIV/AIDS endured by a significant number of Indonesian citizens have amounted to a “national emergency” and enacted a presidential decree that authorizes government use of patents over the patent-protected anti-retroviral medication since 2004. In 2007 and 2012, the government continued their pursuit to best aid the citizens and resolve the HIV/AIDS epidemic as best as possible by further enacting government use over more patented anti-retroviral medication. The government, also to its best effort, complied with the procedures under the TRIPS Agreement to provide compensation to the patent holder, ensure its non-exclusivity and non-assignability, etc. In implementing the pharmaceutical patents, the government appointed state-owned pharmaceutical company PT. Kimia Farma to produce the medication and distribute such medication for low and affordable prices to a wide range of provinces in Indonesia.