Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Opinion
  • Published:

The time for pharmaceutical compulsory licensing has expired

The compulsory license mechanism is broken and will not bring drug access to the world's poorest nations. It's time to consider another option—a tax levied on patents—to fund drugs for developing countries, rather than the erratic compulsory licensing mechanism.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kuhn, R., Beall, R. The time for pharmaceutical compulsory licensing has expired. Nat Med 18, 1168 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0812-1168

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0812-1168

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing