The Effect of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement on Accessibility of Medicine in Kenya

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Trade-Related Aspects Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS) on accessibility of medicine in Kenya. Specifically the study sought to find out if at all TRIPS has impacted the inaccessibility of drugs in Kenya, to examine the role different actors have played in making sure Kenyans gets acce^g to drugs and lastly to find out what policies Kenya is using to ensure accessibility to medicine. The researcher targeted all the 33 pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in Kenya and purposively selected three senior most managers from every company to arrive at a sample size of 99 respondents that participated in study. The study established that TRIPS had the largest influence on the accessibility of drugs followed by the policies used while the role of the actors had the least effect. The study concluded that TRIPS Agreement partially allowed granting of compulsory licenses in order to make cheaper and available generic versions of patented drugs. Intellectual Property Rights protection did not enhance cost effective innovations in the drug manufacturing industry and therefore did not encourage drug availability and access Kenya. The study further concluded that companies in the manufacturing sector created value by discovering and producing effective medicines, vaccines and services that improved patients' well-being and ensured products were readily available in the markets at affordable prices. The researcher recommended that firms and innovation companies in the manufacturing sector should improve in the creation of value by discovering and producing effective medicines, vaccines and services that improve patients' well-being, and ensure that products are readily available in the markets at affordable prices. On the other hand, Kenyan government should ensure constant availability and accessibility of safe and effective drugs to all sectors of the population