Table 3.

Empirical studies of the implications of patenting on present access

Authors/Ref. no.	Period	Setting (Country/medicines)	Objectives	Model	Method
Akaleephan et al. (2009) [31]	2000-2003	Thailand, top 70 imported medicines.	The implications of the TRIPS-Plus proposal, and extension of patent life on price and access	Regression analysis and Modelling	It was assumed that the first medicine patent expired in 2003. Drug consumption and budget from using generic were estimated. This cost was then compared with increased cost from patent life extension.
Yamabhai et al. (2009) [32]	2006-2008	Thailand, 7 government use licensed medicines in ARVs, heart disease and anti-cancer	The implications of Thailand's government use licenses on health and trade and foreign investment	Regression analysis and Markov model	Estimating the increased no. of patients with access to government use license medicines from the current number of access and up to 5 years. The Markov model was used to simulate the heath impact. Trend analysis of export and foreign direct investment was employed.
Attaran (2004)/[33]	2003	65 low and middle income countries, 319 WHO essential medicines	How many medicines are under patent in low and middle income countries?	Survey	Surveying pharmaceutical companies and their patent agents to determine where and how patentable medicines in the essential list of the WHO are now patented in developing countries
Borrell (2003)/[34]	1995-1999	34 low and middle income countries, HIV/AIDS medicines	The impact of patent rights on medicine sales: reducing or increasing.	Modelling	Developing two simultaneous relationships: (1) the relationship between the likely entry decision across drug-country-year triplets and patents; and (2) the relationship between market coverage (i.e. mean coverage of patients with a specific ARV drug) and patents conditional on drug entry decisions and patent regime.