The Plaintiffs were the owners of the patented cancer-drug Erlotinib. Erlotinib is a Quinazolin derivative and destroys some types of cancer cells with little secondary effects. The Defendant announced that it was going to sell a generic version of Erlotinib in India and in foreign markets. The Plaintiffs sought a permanent injunction to stop the …Read more

The applicant, a Ugandan national, was HIV positive and claimed that if the United Kingdom forced her to return to Uganda then she would not have sufficient access to medical treatment for her condition. She claimed that this result would violate her rights under Articles 3 (prohibiting torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment) …Read more

The Court of Justice found that the State of Rio Grande do Norte had the obligation of providing high-cost medication, free of charge, to an indigent individual suffering from melanoma. The Court of Rio Grande do Norte had previously dismissed an interlocutory appeal brought by the state. The State of Rio Grande do Norte filed an extraordinary …Read more

Appellant alleged that a resolution issued by the General Directorate of Pharmacy and Chemical Products (GDPCP) violated provisions in Spain’s Law of Medicines and General Law of Health by restricting the distribution of the pharmaceutical Rebetol for reasons other than objective reasons of health. When new pharmaceutical drugs were developed in Spain, owners of the …Read more

T.D.Z. suffered from cancer and was prescribed an active treatment in 1998, which obtained good results. In 2002, T.D.Z. required chemical injections in order to induce binding menopause after which she was required to take hormone replacements. The Ministry of Health, however, was unable to provide T.D.Z. with the injections (Zodalex®) for April and May …Read more

An urgent application was filed on behalf of fifteen prisoners living with HIV/AIDS who required antiretroviral (ARV) treatment while incarcerated at the Westville Correctional Centre (WCC) in KwaZulu-Natal province. The Applicants were acting in their individual capacities and as representatives of the class of prisoners incarcerated at WCC. The sixteenth applicant was the Treatment Action …Read more

The Petitioner, an elderly woman with diabetes, filed an action of amparo against the I.N.S.S.J.P, a public entity devoted to the provision of public health insurance to retired people. She requested the judiciary to order the Respondent to provide her 100U of human insulin, reactive tape and disposable syringes, as well as the medicine “Ampliactil” …Read more

The lower court referred to the Constitutional Court a question as to the constitutionality of certain provisions regarding the obligatory health care and compensation insurance;  the challenged provisions treated equally those pharmaceutical companies which were producing drugs of human origin and those pharmaceutical companies which were producing drugs chemically prepared or by recombination. The claimant, …Read more

The decision addressed three petitions with similar facts. In all three cases, the petitioners were diagnosed with cancer and prescribed a medication not included in the health services basket available under the national health care services (which was prohibitively expensive to purchase individually). By the time two of the petitions came to the Court, however, …Read more

N, a Ugandan woman, came to London in Mach 1998 seeking asylum. Her application for asylum was rejected and the Secretary of State proposed to expel her. N was suffering from advanced HIV/AIDS, but had achieved a stable condition due to the extensive medical treatment and medication she had been receiving in the UK. If …Read more