It is with immense sadness that the Fix the Patent Laws (FTPL) Coalition shares the news of the passing of a dear friend and brave patient advocate, Sue Johnson. Sue was a mother of two children and grandmother to two girls. She was born in the UK and moved to South Africa in 1983, where […]
READ MOREACTIVISTS AROUND THE WORLD MARCH #ForTobeka – Demonstrations held at Roche & pharma associations in South Africa, Malaysia, UK, France, Zambia, Brazil, US – 108 organisations endorse a letter to Roche Tuesday, 7th February 2017 – Swiss multinational company Roche faced […]
READ MORETHURSDAY 31st MARCH 2015, JOHANNESBURG – Today, members of the Fix the Patent Laws campaign, including Advocates for Breast Cancer, the Cancer Alliance, the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA), Doctors without Borders, People Living with Cancer, SECTION27, the South African Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance, the Treatment Action Campaign, and Wings of Hope are picketing outside pharmaceutical […]
READ MOREThe South African Constitution guarantees the right to have access to healthcare services, and places a positive obligation upon the state to take measures that progressively realise that right. However, often people don’t have access to the medicines they need in South Africa because lifesaving drugs are priced out of reach, while cheaper generics are […]
READ MOREArticle originally published by the NSP Review here. By Lotti Rutter, Treatment Action Campaign Achieving the National Strategic Plan (NSP) objectives depends on the effective use of the national health budget. But is there sufficient emphasis on value for money in the health sector at a time when South Africa is struggling to meet its […]
READ MOREBy Professor Brook K. Baker, Senior Policy Analyst, Health GAP PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America) is putting $350,000 on the table to stop proposed patent law reform in South Africa and instead to lobby for even more monopoly protections for medicines. Why would a pharmaceutical association from the US be so interested in an […]
READ MOREToday the Mail & Guardian published a story entitled – “Motsoaledi: Big pharma’s ‘satanic’ plot is genocide” regarding leaked documents revealing that the international pharmaceutical industry planned a $450,000 campaign against the proposed patent law reforms in South Africa. In reaction the Treatment Action Campaign’s General Secretary Vuyiseka Dubula made the following statement: “The Treatment Action Campaign […]
READ MOREArticle originally found on Pharmalot here. By Brook Baker In recent months, two countries with large economies and large populations both took steps to rework their patent laws, in part, to expand access to medicines. The moves come amid increasing concerns that treatments for certain ailments, such as AIDS and cancer, are out of reach for […]
READ MOREOn 17th October, the Working Group on Intellectual Property of the Brazilian Network for the Integration of Peoples (GTPI/REBRIP, acronym in Portuguese), coordinated by the Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA, acronym in Portuguese), made a submission of recommendations to the South African Department of Trade and Industry on the Draft National Policy on IP. The […]
READ MOREThis speech was made by former XDR-TB patient Phumeza Tisile, from Khayelitsha, on October 17 in Pretoria at both a press conference and a rally organised by the Fix the Patent Laws campaign. “My experience with TB was rather a very long journey. Firstly, I was late diagnosed. Secondly, I was given the wrong medication for […]
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