In 2000, Jordan signed the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPS Agreement) and a free trade agreement with the US (USJFTA). Both commitments have required Jordan to comply with various obligations, including full compliance with the minimum standards for the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) under the TRIPS Agreement and TRIPS-Plus IP standards set out under the terms of the USJFTA. Enticed by views that strong IP protection would create prosperity in the Kingdom by promoting technological innovation and inducing transfer and dissemination of technology to Jordanians, Jordan implemented the provisions of TRIPS and the USJFTA to the letter. However, Jordan focused little attention on important “TRIPS flexibilities”. In particular, Jordan has qualified parallel importation and limited the grounds of compulsory licenses. In addition, Jordan provides pharmaceutical testing data with data exclusivity.
This thesis focuses on the Jordanian experience in the pharmaceutical sector. It argues that strong patent protection has not been conducive to the promotion of technological innovation and the transfer and dissemination of technology. Moreover, this protection has resulted in adverse outcomes such as increased drug prices, unavailability of essential medicines in some public hospitals for serious diseases, and a dwindling local pharmaceutical industry, in part, as a consequence of its inability to access advanced, patented technology on reasonable commercial terms.
The thesis also investigates the legitimacy of establishing certain grounds of compulsory licensing by Jordan, even in light of the TRIPS-Plus obligations under the USJFTA. It advocates that such grounds contribute to the promotion of technical innovation, lead to the transfer of advanced technology, and above all improve access to affordable medicines. Finally, the thesis explores Jordan’s obligations to protect pharmaceutical testing data under TRIPS and USFTA arguing that neither of these two instruments requires data exclusivity as claimed by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) and some developed countries.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/32296 |
| Date | 26 March 2012 |
| Creators | Abughanm, Saad |
| Contributors | Katz, Ariel |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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