Tensions of social human rights in ensuring access to medicines

Abstract Ensuring access to medicines is a state human rights obligation derived from the right to health, interdependent and interrelated with other human rights, such as the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and the right to protection of intellectual property. The structures and relationships of international politics have been affected by intense global trade flows, rules, and institutional dynamics that reduce the responsiveness of states and increase vulnerability to preventable disease and death. The study critically analyzes the regulations of the United Nations International Health System, responsible for monitoring, in three categories: Innovation, scientific research, and intellectual property; Market, price, and affordability; Interventions in health systems. The ethical-political perspective of human rights in protecting vulnerable individuals and populations, the social function of intellectual property, and scientific progress in access to medicines are minimized. Although the regulations address human rights concerns, they adopt liberal measures focused on economic efficiency and rationing to ensure the system’s sustainability. However, these measures have proven ineffective at guaranteeing access to healthcare.