ABSTRACT
This chapter explores pharmaceutical public policy with an eye to its impact on the developing world. It focuses on various arguments about the status of intellectual property. It surveys some of the relevant policies and institutions for pharmaceutical oversight. It considers some alternatives to the current system in light of widely shared ethical commitments but highlights the significance of addressing ethical disagreement for figuring out how to approach the complex issue. A discussion of pharmaceutical policies engages many issues about the moral status of opportunities to access healthcare and the significance of national borders in the distribution of healthcare resources. Current pharmaceutical policy provides monopolies for the parties who succeed in patenting important medications. The patent system gives some protections and incentives for pharmaceutical companies to do the hard work to create and distribute essential medicines. Pharmaceuticals are goods that is expensive to create, are inexpensively replicated.
