The Right To Access Medicines And Health Technologies: A human Rights and Legal perspective In India

Abstract Access to medicines and health technologies has emerged as one of the most important human rights questions in contemporary international law. The issue sits at the intersection of the right to life, the right to health, equality, dignity, development, and social justice. While international human rights instruments do not always articulate a standalone right to medicines, they increasingly recognise that essential medicines, vaccines, diagnostics, medical devices, and public health technologies are indispensable to realising the highest attainable standard of health. In India, this question carries special significance because the country is both a constitutional democracy committed to welfare and a major global producer of affordable generic medicines. The Indian legal position has evolved through constitutional interpretation, public interest litigation, pharmaceutical regulation, patent law reform, judicial activism, and health-policy innovation. This paper examines access to medicines and health technologies as a human rights issue from an Indian perspective while situating the discussion within international law. It analyses the normative foundations of the right to health under international human rights law, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and related standards issued by the World Health Organisation and United Nations bodies. It then explores how India has translated these principles into constitutional doctrine through Articles 14, 21, 38, 39, 41, 42, and 47 of the Constitution, and through case law recognising health care and access to treatment as components of the right to life. The paper also studies the impact of the TRIPS Agreement, public health safeguards, compulsory licensing, pricing regulation, and the role of domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing. A contemporary assessment shows that India has made substantial progress in improving medicine availability, vaccine production, and digital health infrastructure, but serious inequalities persist across geography, gender, caste, income, disability, and rural-urban location. Current concerns include high out-of-pocket expenditure, uneven health infrastructure, access barriers to patented drugs, regulation of medical devices, digital exclusion, and supply chain vulnerabilities. The paper argues that access to medicines and health technologies must be treated not merely as a policy aspiration but as a legally enforceable human rights obligation. It concludes that India offers an important model for balancing public health and intellectual property, but must deepen legal accountability, strengthen universal health coverage, and build equitable technological access to fulfil both constitutional and international commitments.