Trade measures on pharmaceutical products: Can they promote local production and public health?

The rise in trade measures on pharmaceutical products has become a matter of intense debate since the start of the COVID-19 crisis. By October 2022, more than140 export restrictions had been placed on them worldwide; at least 50 directly affected vaccine production and distribution. A systematic assessment of their welfare effects offers a way to classify the plethora of trade measures in the global pharmaceutical sector with an explanation of their use in different jurisdictions worldwide. It also provides an assessment and indicates advances on ways in which such trade measures can be used in the interest of local production and public health.