Intellectual property rights anti-AIDS policy and generic drugs. Lessons from the Brazilian Public Health Program.

The paper intends to get into Brazil’s National anti-Aids Program’s “black box” and unveil the elements that drive its dynamics. The focus is on the main choices that have governed the Program’s preparation the obstacles it has faced and how it has overcome them. By doing so the paper also identifies some remaining limitations that may undermine the program’s long-term sustainability in its current form. The paper specifically highlights the contradiction that exists between a public health goal of ensuring the lowest possible prices of ARVs for a maximum number of patients and the way the means used to achieve this goal have made it harder to implement autonomous and competitive local production notably in the field of active principles. The paper concludes with the key elements provided by the Brazilian experience for the debate on TRIPS. (authors)