The lack of access to medicines is a pervasive global health crisis. People need access to affordable, quality medicines. New drugs are needed to tackle these global health challenges and emerging diseases and conditions. The Pharmaceutical industry plays a key role in tackling these challenges as the primary developer, producers and provider of medicines globally. The right to access medicines is a core component of the right to health (Art.12 ICESCR) and finds support in the right to benefit from scientific development (Art.15(1)(b) ICESCR) and the right to life (Art.6 ICCPR). These rights go unfulfilled for many and must be progressively improved and realised for current generations.

Concurrently, the planet is undergoing a crisis, with climate change threatening the very foundations of human existence. The production and development of pharmaceutical products contributes to the global climate crisis through the extraction of earth’s natural resources, the production of harmful greenhouse gas emissions, and the high levels of pollution. The pharmaceutical industry can therefore be said to have a negative impact of the environment. The right to a healthy environment has recently been developed through UN Resolutions (A/HRC/RES/48/13 and A/RES/76/300) alongside academic and soft-law developments in the articulation of the human rights of future generations (Maastricht Principles on the Human Rights of Future Generations 2023). These developments make clear the need for human rights to consider the present and future impact of rights fulfilment and protection upon the environment and earth’s natural resources, to ensure the right to environment and human rights more broadly, for future generations.

A tension thus exists between fulfilling the right to access medicines for current generations and fulfilling the right to environment for present and future generations. In this research project, I wish to consider how pharmaceutical companies can navigate this landscape.

Key Project Research Questions:
1. What is the role and responsibilities of the pharmaceutical industry vis-à-vis access to medicines and the right to health / the right a healthy environment?
2. What are the roles and responsibilities of the pharmaceutical industry vis-à-vis the human rights of future generations?
3. What are the tensions which exist between these responsibilities and rights?
4. How might changes to the practices / regulations of the pharmaceutical industry help to address these tensions?
5. How can the rights of present and future generations to a healthy environment and access to medicines be ensured?
Prospective Papers within this project:
1. Medicines Beyond the Anthropocene: Pharmaceutical Companies and The Maastricht Principes on the Human Rights of Future Generations
2. Pharmaceutical Companies and the Right to a Healthy Environment
3. TBC