15 October 2020, Johannesburg – The Fix the Patent Laws Coalition (FTPL), a group of over 40 organisations working to reform South Africa’s patent laws, welcomes the progressive proposal by South Africa and India for a waiver of all intellectual property in respect of COVID-19 related diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. We have seen how a […]
Read MoreBut public remains in the dark regarding stalled policy process The Fix the Patent Laws (FTPL) coalition welcomes recent public comments made by Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies and Minister of Health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi about patents and patent law in South Africa and in other developing countries. Earlier this month Minister Davies […]
Read MoreWe are not fooled: Global health activists confront pharmaceutical industry over excessive medicine prices On 1st April 2016, activists across the world are protesting against the greed that blocks access to essential medicines. April Fools’ Day is an appropriate day to highlight both the extortionate price of medicines and the lack of transparency around research […]
Read MoreOn Thursday the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) together with partners Cape Mental Health, Advocates for Breast Cancer, People Living with Cancer, and SECTION27 will picket outside hearings held by the United Nations Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines (details below). We will urge the High Level Panel to place the […]
Read MoreThe Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) is a United Nations-backed organisation that negotiates voluntary licenses for HIV medicines with the aim of expanding access to these medicines. It was founded in 2010 and is funded by UNITAID. In recent months studies were conducted to explore whether the MPP should expand its work to medicines for tuberculosis […]
Read MoreA Treatment Action Campaign briefing document Background The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (“the TRIPS agreement”), effective from 1 January 1995, set standards of intellectual property protection that member states of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are required to uphold in their own national laws.[1] The TRIPS agreement requires WTO member countries […]
Read MoreA Joint Statement by Treatment Action Campaign, Treatment Action Group, HIV i-Base, European AIDS Treatment Group and SECTION27 17 November 2011 The exorbitant price of AIDS medicines, especially antiretrovirals, has been one of the main barriers to people with HIV accessing them, especially in developing countries. As activist organisations we have been at the forefront […]
Read MorePress release 16 November 2011 (Cape Town) – Ten years ago this week, member countries of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) signed the Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health (“the Doha Declaration”). Members were gathered in Doha to discuss valid concerns that an international agreement to protect intellectual property – the Agreement on […]
Read MoreAfter stalling for some time, negotiations for an economic partnership agreement (EPA) between the European Union (EU) on the one hand and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), Mozambique and Angola on the other have recently restarted. According to an article published in Business Day on 10 February 2011, Xavier Carim – Deputy Director-General for […]
Read MoreThe Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), SECTION27 and Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) South Africa voice support for their partners across the world opposing provisions in a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union (EU) that threaten the sustainable supply of affordable medicines to millions of people in the […]
Read MoreDuring the 1990s and early 2000s generic competition drove down the prices of ARVs. Without these massive price reductions, nearly a million additional people would be dead or dying now in South Africa. In 2005 many generic producing countries, including India, became TRIPS compliant. This means that medicines developed since 1995 cannot as easily be […]
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