Public Event: “If the Price is Right? Big Pharma vs. the Right to Health”

Description

How are individuals fighting at the local level for the global right to health in the face of economic inequality? Can legal action help vulnerable individuals in this struggle? What is the role of the judge in ensuring the right to health is enjoyed equally by all, regardless of socio-economic status?  

Global inequalities coupled with corporations’ profit motive place great pressure on the right to health. High medicine prices make life-saving medicines impossible to access for the most vulnerable while patents often prevent generic, cheaper versions from being offered. And pharmaceutical companies often elect to test their experimental drugs in some of the poorest countries of the world.

Increasingly, individuals and groups are turning to legal venues to protect their right to health, as recent legal action against Monsanto, tobacco companies, and pharmaceutical companies show. These actions at the local level must address complex, transnational issues surrounding global health and global inequalities. In this event, we focus on the ethical, political and legal dilemmas surrounding the right to health and zoom in on how vulnerable groups are mobilizing to protect their right to health.

The Centre for Global Challenges is hosting a closed Expert Meeting on Legal Professionalism for Global Challenges earlier in the day on the 4th of December. This Expert Meeting will focus on the type of legal professionalism needed for dealing with global challenges such as the right to health and climate change.