Access to medicines

As a member of the Working Group on Intellectual Property of the Brazilian Network for the Integration of Peoples (GTPI/REBRIP), Conectas develops legal actions primarily aimed at minimizing the negative impacts of the intellectual property protection system for pharmaceutical products on access to medicines in Brazil.

Carried out in partnership with other NGOs, the activities are intended to guarantee the right to health and access to medicines through legal proceedings, research, seminars and national and international advocacy.

AZT pills / from: Agência AIDS

Conectas, as a member of the GTPI, is responsible for five pioneering legal cases on the right to health, including: a “public civil action” on compulsory licensing for medicines; a case examining patents for pharmaceutical products; and a petition to the Brazilian Attorney General against the system for revalidating patents, known as the pipeline mechanism. In addition to this, it also carried the research for the report “Intellectual property for pharmaceutical products: a study on legislative adequacy from the viewpoint of public health and the human right to health”.


Since its creation, the Justice Program has had a privileged institutional partnership with the Pro Bono Institute.