On 15-16 March, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR) co-organised a conference with several partners the conference Public Pharma for Europe.  

The conference discussed why Europe needs a public pharmaceutical infrastructure to realise universal access to medicines and public health goals. At the same time, the gathering explored the transformative potential of knowledge commons to advance medical research and development. The full programme of the conference is available here.  

Rossella De Falco, Programme Officer on the Right to Health at GI-ESCR, presented results from the upcoming policy brief ‘Transformative Policies to Realise Universal Access to Medicines. Need Knowledge Commons and Public Options for Pharmaceuticals to Realise the Rights to Health and Science’. The research frames universal access to medicines as a fundamental component of several human rights, including the rights to life, health, and science.  

Furthermore, GI-ESCR’s contribution looked at the limits of commercial approaches to pharmaceutical innovation and delivery. Commodification of pharmaceuticals increases economic inequalities within countries and pushes poorer countries into debt, reinforcing colonial legacies in global health.

"Through a human rights perspective, we can reconceptualise the products of medical innovation as knowledge commons and reclaim public ownership of pharmaceutical research and delivery", Rossella De falco noted. 

Commercial models for researching, developing, manufacturing, and delivering medicines have failed to meet human rights goals. While TRIPS flexibilities can be useful to address some problems, they alone cannot achieve the long-term project of realising the rights to health and science. States need to comply with their human rights obligations using their resources towards transformative and progressive policy solutions.