Access to medicines in the context of the right-to-health framework 2013, para. 21
Paragraph- Paragraph text
- States have a legal obligation under the right to health to ensure that production of essential medicines by the private sector does not threaten affordability and accessibility of medicines. Market monopoly or market domination combined with insufficiently competitive forces in the market to ensure efficient prices can result in monopolistic pricing leading to high cost of medicines. Hence, price regulation becomes critical. In some countries, however, the term "price control" has acquired a negative connotation, including that it affects revenue-induced innovation for pharmaceutical companies. In developed countries, where a substantial proportion of the population is covered by health insurance schemes, governments frequently apply price control mechanisms as part of the overall strategy to contain costs. The absence of price controls in developing countries causes grave problems if private-sector monopoly over manufacture and distribution of vital medicines remains unregulated. Such unfettered monopoly can lead to profit-maximizing pricing. In developing countries with high income-inequality it would mean that access to medicines is only affordable to the wealthy. States that inadequately use price controls to ensure affordability of medicines would fail in their obligation to use all available resources, including regulatory powers, to promote the right to health.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
- Paragraph type
- Other
- Reference
- SR Health, Report to the HRC (2013), A/HRC/23/42, para. 21.
- Paragraph number
- 21
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