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

在保健部门经营的跨国公司，特别是制药公司，往往对严重依赖其生产的药品的人产生负面影响。人为提高药品价格（Kuchler，2019; Rapaport，2019）以及广泛的医疗保健部门腐败（Toebes，2010）源于以利润为动机的文化，影响了医疗保健政策和规定（Germain，2019）。例如，Mylan Pharmaceuticals将救命的EpiPen价格上涨600%（Odden et al，2017）;据报道，导致父母将高度过敏的孩子送到学校使用过期药物;无法支付勒索的价格上涨（Voyles，2019）。因此，本研究审查了确保对侵犯“健康权”的保健部门跨国公司问责的国际机制的有效性。这项研究的及时性不能低估，因为据报道，英国脱欧后的英美贸易协议可能会加剧美国制药公司日益增长的实力及其对英国药品价格上涨的影响（巴内特，2019）。

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).