Lauren Kane recently published a short piece on the Ideas in ALL blog, entitled; “30 Years of the TRIPS Agreement: The Need to Balance Intellectual Property Rights with the Right to Health” (09 May 2025). Against the backdrop of the recent celebration of World Intellectual Property Day 2025 on the 26th of April, and in a year which also marks 30 years since the TRIPS Agreement came into force, this blog focuses on the tensions arising between the human right to health and intellectual property rights. It contends that, alongside celebrating the beneficial role of intellectual property rights in encouraging new innovation in the healthcare context, we must also be cognisant of the potential impacts patents can have in relation to the accessibility of medicines. Ultimately, it argues there is a need for greater consideration of the potential human rights implications of how intellectual property rights, such as patents, are exercised over health technologies.
Recently, Prof Aisling McMahon and Lauren Kane presented a co-authored paper on this topic at the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Conference (Liverpool, 15th – 17th April 2025), entitled “Patents & Access to Everyday Health-Technologies: Implications and Limitations of Addressing Access Issues Through a Human Right to Health”.
The extent to which human rights may be used to ameliorate access issues potentially caused by patents in the healthcare context is part of ongoing research conducted within the ERC funded PatentsInHumans project, led by Prof Aisling McMahon (PI).
Lauren Kane is a research assistant on the PatentsInHumans project, based in the ALL Institute. As part of this role, Lauren is currently assisting with research in relation to the human rights implications of patented health technologies related to the human body.