The debate on access to medicines in the developing world has become unprecedentedly heated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Should the compulsory licensing (or even a waiver) of COVID-19 vaccine patents be a way out? It is, therefore, aptly timed that Dr Van Anh Le, from the University of Oxford, has published her well-researched book on compulsory patent licensing and access to medicine. This book consists of seven chapters that seek an answer to its title question.

Chapter 1 introduces the concept of compulsory licensing when it first appeared under the 1994 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which has given rise to the debate between free trade and patent exclusivity.

Chapter 2 takes a tour of patent law from medieval to modern times, and its impact on the pharmaceutical industry. The author criticizes TRIPS as an outcome of the strategic effort by the US pharmaceutical industry. Consequently, TRIPS hinders access to medicine in developing countries that “have resorted to compulsory licensing to solve the deadlock” (p. 45).

The compulsory licensing regime is then well discussed in Chapter 3, where it is found that compulsory licensing turns out to be very abstract and left undefined, especially when it comes to local working requirements.

Chapters 4 and 5 focus on India and Brazil's compulsory licensing regimes. India has wisely exploited all the advantages of TRIPS, such as the 10-year transition. After three decades of freeriding in the pharmaceutical sector, India's law welcomed the return of patents on medicine products in 2005. The book uses case studies to peel, layer by layer, India's attitude towards compulsory licensing – which is an attitude of “due caution” (p. 108). Unlike India, Brazil failed to adopt TRIPS flexibilities, resulting in an inappropriate intellectual property regime for their local needs. To compensate for the country's missed opportunity, Brazil has turned compulsory licensing into a tool for price bargaining to ensure public health. The author's beautiful phraseology draws a picture of the discrepancy between these two countries without wasting volumes for comparison. Thus, while India enjoys a proactive role in the private sector, Brazil's position is mainly based on its leaders’ political efforts.

Chapter 6 sheds light on the role of multilateral organizations in shaping the compulsory licensing regime. The EU has been pretty silent on this issue in contrast to the US's engaging approach, though both are said to be protective and supportive towards their pharmaceutical industries. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) supposedly has a conflict of interest. The World Health Organization (WHO) and other health-related non-governmental organizations were not initially involved in the TRIPS negotiation process; however, they have since regained the initiative and have quickly become proactive actors. The book dedicates the last chapter to the conclusion and recommendations.

This book is praiseworthy for its comprehensibility. Le gives readers a detailed description of the historical process of all matters discussed in this book and the multi-faceted nature of problems is well structured, as are the associated deliberations, plainly illustrating the author's opinion. Undoubtedly, the book is a timely and essential reading amid the current pandemic. Readers should find it persuasive that compulsory patent licensing is not a silver bullet for COVID-19 vaccines. This reviewer highly recommends this publication to scholars and policymakers, particularly those from developing countries.