Intellectual Property and Health Care at the Multilateral Level during a Pandemic COVID-19

The current stage of development of the world economic system is characterized by a high degree of intellectualization of international economic relations. This phenomenon is mostly reflected in the context of the international movement of intellectual property objects (hereinafter - IP), which received a new impetus during the COVID-19.The multilateral IP system, historically based on the principle of limiting free competition and granting monopoly to IP holders, is now facing a new challenge in the face of the growing global struggle against the pandemic and the possible limitation of the exclusive rights of owners. In this context, the key question becomes what measures should be taken at the multilateral level to successfully combat the pandemic.It is noteworthy that at the beginning of the last decade, the World Trade Organization (WTO, WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO, WIPO) and the World Health Organization (WHO, WHO) began trilateral cooperation in response to the growing demand from a group of developing countries for strengthening capacity for policy-making on issues covering the Organizations' areas of expertise: trade, IP and health. The main challenge was to expand access to medicines, medical technologies and health innovations.Today, tripartite cooperation continues, allowing to assess progress in increasing the availability of medical technologies, primarily in developing and least developed countries (during the pandemic, there was a surge in demand for medical services and health technologies), innovative development in the pharmaceutical sector, as well as related changes in regional trade agreements.The global IP system deserves special attention, which implies the existence of an incentive mechanism for the transfer of IP rights (primarily patents as extremely important objects in the field of pharmaceuticals and healthcare) capable of solving the most acute problems caused by the COVID-19