Globalization: New Exclusion Amidst Growing Inequality - Research Paper

Introduction

While globalization has continued to break down barriers between trade and communication some of its aspects create a new form of exclusion. The gap between technologies is closing while gap between the rich and the poor is growing wider. With just the exception of the Eastern Asian countries that have joined the league of developed countries recently, existing developed countries have continued to limit operations of developing countries. Newly industrialized states are trying hard to uphold stability while, those countries that are not fully established face serious economic marginalization from developed nations, especially the United States and the European Union. Technological growth brought about the establishment of TRIPS (Rodrik 75). TRIPS agreement was introduced as an aspect that is supposed to improve developing nations' technical skills, utilize technology as a tool for development especially when used with pharmaceuticals. The paper will examine the impact of TRIPS on enhancing better medical delivery in developing nations.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Developing countries were encouraged to foster medicine innovation through this program, not until they learned that economically the program was developed to help the development of the less fortunate countries around the globe. All the member states of the WTO had to adhere to all the minimums standards of TRIPS (Cao and Wenyue 484). TRIPS in its formation were meant to protect the interest of the intellectuals and their properties. Most intellectual who has the capacity to build and create pharmaceutical formation is from the United States and European. It means the rest of the countries were only forced to sign the agreement and in real sense it rarely favored them. developing countries have realized that they were duped and tried to negotiate their way of the deal, but it has not been possible. Brazil as a developing country at one time tried to create a new policy through legislative means that allowed them to create counterfeit drugs from the original.

The United States denied Brazil the chance to do so quoting articles from the TRIPS agreement. Brazil, Argentina, and India have had the capability to create pharmaceuticals, but they were not granted that chance pending approval from the convention of members of WTO where United States and EU are developed countries with large shares that they both own. It is clear that TRIPS has had negative effects on developing nations, especially in the patented area. In this paper, the focus is to conduct a complete analysis of how TRIPS affect developing countries while entirely benefits developed countries. However before giving an analysis of how developed countries reap well from the company the paper analyzes the pharmaceutical situations of both the countries then comes up with the challenges that developing countries face at the expense of developed countries.

The Pharmaceutical Situation in Developing Countries

Industrialized countries led by the United States enjoy every aspect of pharmaceutical benefit that they can get. In the United States, every citizen has access to proper medical care. The proper medical care that they receive is all thanks to the type of medical research facilities that they have. Medical and pharmaceutical researches are done in every scientific way possible. The country has both public and private research facilities which contribute adequately to the pharmaceuticals that are country in existence. The country has taken charge of many kinds of research especially pharmaceutical researches which has contributed very much to finding cure for a lot of conditions in the globe. According to research by NCBI, pharmaceutical researches that are most successful 42% of them are from the United States (Andersen 14).

The nation adequately utilizes its pharmacy policies to come up with complete solutions to medicinal problems. In terms of medical care all the citizens of the country are protected by insurance. In terms of the prevalence of disease conditions, United States is only prevalent in clinical conditions or rather lifestyle conditions. Good populations of the United States are affected by public health factors like tobacco smoking, alcohol, and diabetes. These are all conditions that lifestyle because one decides to either have them or not. People affected by such conditions require more change of lifestyle than they require pharmaceutical drugs. The analysis of United States clearly shows how they do not really need pharmaceutical drugs like other countries to need them. The countries that require pharmaceutical help the most are developing countries with prevalent and serious conditions like will be investigated later in this paper (Vawda and Brook 25). Other developed countries around the globe suffer the same fate as the United States. The origin-country of the TRIPS idea France is even much better placed than the United States in terms of industrialization and research facilities. France has a medical research facility in every hospital. Such a rate of industrialization explains why developed countries come up with intellectual pharmaceutical properties than developing countries who take a better part of the time struggling with infrastructure, amenities, seeking for global help and dealing with prevalent conditions with totally limits their utilization of research facilities that exist in the place.

However, the primary basis that drives most developed countries limit their application or help for humanity. Despite having all the research facilities and leading pharmaceutical investigations, the United States just like most developed countries is governed by a misleading philosophy. A good number of developed countries are governed by capitalism as a theory. Goods and services, even to humanity are provided not any basis but on the basis of money (Andersen 15). All trade is conducted in relation to profits and money that each team will accrue. The health care delivery system has strictly followed fees for service system. It is for such interest that developed countries came up with TRIPS. The developed nations hide behind TRIPS claiming they are using TRIPS to protect the interest of the manufacturer by protecting the usage of his goods without their knowledge or approval. All the manufacturers need to gain from the TRIPS are monetary benefits toward their properties which have nothing to do with the way protection of intellectual property.

The Situation in Developing Countries

It is important to compare situations in developed countries to that in developing countries. Comparing the situations gives an insight into why TRIPS is just a plan used by developed countries to rule over developing countries. In a rather barbaric term, developed countries are slavering developing countries using TRIPS. The health situation in most developing countries is proof that they require medical assistance from developed countries. An approximation of 15 million people in developing countries succumbs from infectious diseases, such stresses the need for medical research assistance that should be provided for developing countries. Factors like poverty, lack of access to proper medication, lack of access to proper care and poor sanitation are responsible for many deaths than infections. In most hospitals in developing countries lack of medicine and inadequate facilities to conduct research is also responsible for many deaths.

The availability of drugs and accessibility is something that developing countries through their governments are struggling to achieve. Infrastructure problems in developing countries make it difficult for their government to afford a complete proper health care plan for its people. Laws shared by both developed and underdeveloped countries only limit the level to which humans developing countries can access drugs and limit cure for many prevalent diseases in these areas. One of the most prevalent diseases in most developing countries is HIV/ AIDS. The disease more than any other has caused problems for the people of Sub-Saharan Africa. Of the 36 million people in the world who are infected with disease 25 million come from the Sub-Saharan part of Africa.

Management of HIV requires the regular taking of a drug called ARV. The drug is bought by the government of developing countries because they are very expensive and given to the ones that are infected at no cost. Since most developing countries operate within patency they are forced to buy the drugs as it is. Countries like South Africa have requested permission to reproduce other drugs like the one that was used, but they were not granted permission because of TRIPS. Looking at the common denominator it seems South Africa was not granted access because developed countries wanted to see the money to continue to come in. they totally continue to have selfish behavior at the expense of human lives.

As analyzed, it is clear that most developing countries' health status is quite pathetic. With this pathetic status the Doha Declaration of the TRIPS came to the rescue of some countries. According to the Doha declaration public health concerns should not contract the law of patency. The Doha declaration seemed to have noticed the gravity to which public health problems were affecting developing nations. Problems resulting from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics required to be solved and they weren't going to be solved through blocking production of medicine for developing nations and allowing medicine prices to become expensive benefitting the manufacturer at the expense of other lives just because they come from developing nations. Governments hit by public health problems were given the mandate to re-produce the drugs at their own expense and use it to manage conditions for the people in their own country. The move was very good and many would think it would help developing countries, however it did not. Out of the several developing countries only India, Brazil and Argentina have the infrastructure capacity to produce the drugs. It, therefore, means other developing nations especially those in Africa had fallen to the traps of developed nations once again. They still had to buy drugs expensively from developed nations. Having analyzed the pathetic situation that developing nations are undergoing in terms of health care and the ability to produce medicine and drugs it is important to analyze how TRIPS is an oppressed- oppressor kind of a relationship, which is the thesis proven by this paper.

How TRIPS Negatively Affects Developing Nations

Prior to the TRIPS agreement developing nations had little incentives that supported them to create IPRs. Most developing countries so this as an opportunity to encourage free-flow partnership with developed countries which had the technological capacity t conduct drug and medicinal experiment. Lower standards of patent in India and Brazil encouraged the development of industries in the pharmaceutical field (Weissman 257). This is taking into consideration that India and Brazil had little capacity and they needed it boosted. At that time, there was very little regarding patentable subject matter on what the rights of patent should confer to. Developed countries placing strong rules in the protection of pharmaceuticals are aware that developing nations require western countries technology to develop the scope of their research. A number of the developing countries requested that information regarding pharmaceuticals be provided with minimal restrictions development of the world is in the interest of everyone. Their request is yet to be granted.

Nations like Brazil cried foul saying most developed nations had the access they required to conquer the system before they became stronger. During their time, they enjoyed unprecedented freedom and only would like...