Johannesburg (9 July 2019) — It was announced today that lenalidomide, a lifesaving medicine to treat multiple myeloma, has been included on the latest edition of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Essential Medicines List (EML). Welcoming the inclusion of lenalidomide on the list, among 5 new cancer medicines, the Fix the Patent Laws campaign (a […]
READ MOREContact: Ngqabutho Mpofu (Treatment Action Campaign): 27 61 807 6443| ngqabutho.mpofu@tac.org.za Lotti Rutter (Health GAP): +27 82 065 5842| lotti@healthgap.org (Durban, South Africa)— Today activists stormed the corporate stall of multinational pharmaceutical company Janssen Pharmaceuticals (a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson) at the 9th South African AIDS Conference. The activists demanded that Janssen urgently drop the price of […]
READ MOREIt 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 MOREFinalise the draft policy and amend laws to save lives, activists tell dti 24-10-2017 PRETORIA – Today, more than 1,000 members of the Fix the Patent Laws Coalition (FTPL) will march to the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) in support of the government’s efforts to fix our patent laws and ensure everyone has access […]
READ MOREThis letter was issued by the Tobeka Daki Campaign for Access to Trastuzumab to the Human Rights Council today – on International Women’s Day – as they convene a panel discussion on access to medicines in the context of the right to health. The letter can be accessed here. —— Dear High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad […]
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 MOREThe Fix the Patent Laws coalition applauds the speech given by the South African Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, today as he presented the budget for his Department to Parliament. We welcome his strong stance taken on the costs of cancer drugs, specifically trastuzumab (marketed as Herceptin), around which the Fix the Patent Laws […]
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 MOREOn World Hepatitis Day, organisations call on SA government: protect infants with HepB jab at birth & reduce patent barriers to HepB therapies July 28, 2014, JOHANNESBURG—On World Hepatitis Day, 26 organisations and individuals from around the world have called on the South African Department of Health (DOH) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) […]
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