Access to Medicines

Millions of poor people around the world fall sick and die because they cannot afford the medicines they need to prevent, treat, or cure debilitating diseases. A major obstacle is the attempt by some pharmaceutical companies to interfere with the right of developing countries to legally introduce generic versions of their medicines, despite a World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial agreement in 2001 intended to reaffirm that intellectual property rules should not block the efforts of developing countries to protect public health.

What Oxfam Is Doing

In partnership with other organizations, Oxfam is working to inform people about how intellectual property rules are being used to deny developing countries the right to use public safeguards to ensure that poor people have access to affordable, life-saving medicines. more »

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Oxfam America is a member of Oxfam International, a confederation of 13 organizations working together with over 3,000 partners in more than 100 countries to find lasting solutions to poverty, suffering and injustice.