LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE BALANCE OF INTERESTS OF THE PUBLIC AND THE INTERESTS OF SUBJECTS OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN THE FIELD OF HEATCH CARE
Authors: Анастасія Ротаєнко  
Published: June 2021

The article explores the issues of maintaining the balance of interests of subjects of intellectual property rights and society in the field of medicine and pharmacy. Historically, Ukraine has come a long way in recognizing the area of intellectual property as one that needs legal protection. Nowadays the issue of finding the boundaries and balance between the intellectual property sphere that seeks to fully securethe rights of patent holders and the health care sector, which is aimed at adhering to the principle of availability of medicines and treatments, is very relevant.So, what is the main conflict between the inventor`s interest and the public interest in the healthcare sector? For the most part, the inventor's interests are limited to two goals: to obtain the protection of his scientific achievement within the time limits established by law and to extend these terms when necessary. These interests are the result of the existing marketing authorization procedure. According to this procedure, a medicinal product must undergo a clinical trial, and in order to protect inventor’s patent rights, its owner must undergo a patenting procedure. This shortens the period of real profit. As a consequence, the drug manufacturer is trying to find ways to continue its monopoly on the market. And society is suffering from his actions. As the main public interest in health is the availability of medicines, treatments and diagnostic methods. The protection of this interest is now even identified as one of the priority areas of Ukraine's public policy. As a result, in order to ensure a balance between the interests of society and inventors, Ukraine has made a number of decisions about cooperation with internationalorganizations such as the UN and WIPO, and made the drafting of the National Intellectual Property Strategy.In our view, there is now a need in the Ukrainian legislation to amend patent protection in order to promote health care. Therefore, in this article, we have proposed the following mechanisms to ensure the balance of interests of inventors and society in the health sector:•to establish the possibility of obtaining certificates of additional protection with warnings that the term of such protection will be calculated depending on the time elapsed between the submission of the application for the invention and obtaining the marketing authorization of the medicinal product; •to introduce the possibility of filing a reasoned objection to the application for the invention, a request for the information search on the basis of the claims and the possibility of filing the same reasoned objection to the issue of certificates of additional protection;•to implement the «Bolar position», which will accelerate the release of generic medicines;•to abolish the possibility of patenting as inventions methods of treating the human or animal body by surgical or therapeutic and diagnostic methods;•to enhance the granting of compulsory, open and voluntary licenses to ensure the availability of medicines.