Medicines highlighted

South Africa’s medical schemes hoodwinked by AstraZeneca

Esomeprazole highlights how South Africa’s medical schemes are paying the price for the country’s strict protection of intellectual property, coupled with weak standards of patentability. South Africa should amend its Patents Act to explicitly exclude new formulation medicines from patentability in order to reduce the cost of medicines.  Additionally the fact that Esomeprazole retains market […]

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Patent trickery

A critique of South Africa’s patent laws was published in the February 2012 issue of South African magazine Noseweek. The article further highlighted how our laws have allowed pharmaceutical giant Bayer to block generic versions of Yasmin from entering the market, retaining their monopoly on the popular birth control tablets. Read the article at  http://www.noseweek.co.za/article/2678/Patent-trickery

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Highlighting medicines affected by strict IP laws: Linezolid

Generic name: Linezolid Brand name: Zyvox and Zyvoxid Cost in South Africa: R282.25 per 600 mg tablet in the public sector and R593.01 per 600 mg tablet in the private sector (SEP ex VAT) Linezolid is used in the treatment of drug resistant tuberculosis (TB) and other serious infections. It is recommended to treat complicated […]

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