Post-trial Access to Drugs in Developing Nations ─ Global Health Justice

This book begins the discourse on post-trial access to drugs in developing countries. Underlying ethical issues in global health inequalities and global health research serve as the context of the debate. Due to rampant allegations of violations of rights of research participants, especially in developing countries, it discusses the regulatory infrastructure and ethical oversight of international clinical research, thus emphasizing the priority of safeguarding the rights of research participants and host populations as desiderata in conducting clinical trials in developing countries. This is the first book that analyzes the major obstacles of affordable access to drugs in developing countries – patent and non-patent factors and how they can be overcome through a middle ground approach and a new paradigm to establish global health justice which includes national and global health responsibilities. The book also deals extensively with all complex aspects of the discourse on affordable access to drugs in developing countries, including intellectual property law, international regulations, political and cultural systems, international trade agreements. Furthermore it contains a robust ethical debate and in-depth analysis. The book crafts a paradigm of global health justice involving a sliding scale of national and global responsibilities for the realization of the right to health in general and access to drugs in particular.

Evaristus Chiedu Obi is currently a behavioral specialist consultant/ therapist at Community Psychiatric Centers, Pittsburgh. He has more than a decade of experience working with clients struggling with emotional and behavioral issues, as well as alcohol and other drugs (AOD). He is a priest of the Catholic Archdiocese of Onitsha, Nigeria. He also completed four units of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) which includes a residency program at West Virginia University Hospitals. He studied Healthcare Ethics at Center for Healthcare Ethics, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh and earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in December, 2014. He also earned Master of Arts degree in Social and Public Policy and certificate in Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies from the Duquesne, University. He also studied Social Work and Public Administration and received MSW and MPA degrees respectively from University of Pittsburgh in 2003. He received Bachelor of Arts degrees in Philosophy and Theology respectively from Pontifical Urban University, Rome. His research and teaching interests, include global bioethics and human rights, global health justice, pandemics, public health ethics, research ethics, theory of justice, moral and political philosophy with emphasis on modern and contemporary philosophers such as Kant, Rawls, Pogge and Norman Daniels, etc.