Publication

This paper examines the role of policy entrepreneurs and global activists in shaping the international market for antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to combat HIV/AIDS. The authors explain the transformation of ARVs from private goods, which only a few could afford, into merit goods that are available to everyone. How does the norm of 'universal access to treatment' - that no person should be denied these life-extending drugs - become the ethical basis for global public policy with respect to pharmaceutical allocation? the authors ask. Answering this question may also provide lessons for other global issues, according to the paper.