Business and the 'right to health' in international human rights law

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Transnational Corporations (TNCs) operating in the healthcare sector, especially pharmaceutical companies,have an often-negative impact on those who rely heavily on the medicines they produce. The artificial raisingof drug prices (Kuchler, 2019; Rapaport, 2019) as well as widespread healthcare-sector corruption, (Toebes,2010) stemming from a profit-motivated culture, impacts upon healthcare policy and provision (Germain,2019). Illustrative, is Mylan Pharmaceuticals' 600% price-rise of the life-saving EpiPen (Odden et al, 2017);reportedly causing parents to send their highly-allergic children to school with expired medication; unableto pay the extortionate price-rise (Voyles, 2019). As such, this research examines the effectiveness ofinternational mechanisms of ensuring the accountability of healthcare-sector TNCs which violate the 'rightto health'. The timeliness of this research cannot be understated, given the reported potential for a post-Brexit UK-US trade deal to exacerbate the growing power of US pharmaceutical companies and their impacton drug-price rises in the UK (Barnett, 2019).