Ensuring Access to Life-Saving Medicines: The Case for Compulsory Licensing in Rare Diseases

Rare diseases pose some of the gravest challenges in healthcare. Though uncommon individually, they collectively affect millions of people worldwide. Often these diseases require specialized, lifelong treatments that come with exorbitant price tags. In India, patients suffering from conditions such as spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), haemophilia, thalassemia, and others face tremendous hurdles obtaining affordable medicines. This has placed compulsory licensing, a legal provision allowing...