New research published evaluating how law can improve access to medicine

Research from the University of Warwick, evaluating how law can be employed to improve global access to essential medicines, has been published.

The book ‘Soft Law and Global Health Problems’, written by Dr Sharifah Sekalala from the School of Law, uses case studies, such as the campaign for antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, and the fight against malaria and tuberculosis, to assess how different legal approaches have been used to tackle health epidemics.

Additionally, it explores law-making on global health and analyses the viability of current global health financing trends within new and traditional organisations such as the United Nations, the World Health Organisation, UNAIDS, UNITAID and The Global Fund.

“I wrote this book for the millions of people for whom essential AIDS medicines came too late to save them. We need to act faster in the case of future epidemics and I hope that this book helps lawyers to think more strategically about the actions we can take,” said Sekalala.

“Almost two billion people still lack access to essential medicines, I was interested in thinking about how we can use law in order to close this gap. I looked at how what lawyers call ‘Soft Law’ can be easier, quicker and more responsive in enabling countries to reach agreement during health crises.”

“I was struck by the fact that there was a global post code lottery. If you had AIDS in the developed world you got to live a normal life. If you were born in a poor country like Uganda, you died because essential medicines for diseases such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis are too expensive for millions of people in the developing world.”

The book launched today (24 November) at Warwick Law School.