This paper examines issues surrounding the development and transfer of technologies for addressing the problem of climate change based on the experience of developing countries in addressing problems of innovation and access in the fi eld of medicines. It looks at alternative energy resources (AERs) and climate change mitigation technologies (MTs), at the forms of intellectual property rights (IPRs) used to promote and protect innovation, and at the ways these IPRs may have different effects and implications for AERs/MTs as compared with
pharmaceutical technologies. It is generally assumed that the originator pharmaceutical sector is highly dependent on strong patent protection, mainly because of the high cost involved in developing novel drug therapies and the low cost of reverse engineering these new drugs.