Health activists in South Africa urge govt to “stop blindly handing out” pharma patents

Marching in the South Africa capital Pretoria in support of government-proposed patent law reforms, Medicines Sans Frontieres (MSF), the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), and SECTION27 yesterday handed their submission commenting on the Draft National Policy on Intellectual Property 2013 to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

“This policy is not just about legal technicalities. It will directly affect the health and lives of many millions of people. By fixing the patent laws, South Africa can lower prices of existing medicines, and also create incentives for the development of new and improved treatments to tackle the diseases people live with every day,” said Andrew Mosane, TAC provincial secretary in Gauteng.

The joint MSF-TAC-SECTION27 submission notes that South Africa pays artificially inflated prices for medicines because it blindly hands out patents, without examining applications to see if they meet criteria defined in the country’s Patents Act. This allows pharmaceutical companies to get multiple patents on the same medicine by making small changes, even when such changes have no benefit for patients. This can block more affordable generic competitors from bringing products to market beyond the 20 years required by international trade agreements.

South Africa’s competition not as robust as many other countries, they claim

“In South Africa, competition is not as robust as it is in many other countries. As a result, we don’t have more affordable generic versions of oral contraceptives, medicines to treat bi-polar disorder, cancer medicines and other vital drugs that are available elsewhere. When desperately needed drugs are too expensive, people pay both from their wallets and with their lives,” Julia Hill, MSF Access Campaign officer, added.

MSF, TAC and SECTION27 are pleased that in the draft policy, the DTI also called for rigorous criteria for granting a patent, and recognized the need for a patent examination system, alongside procedures that allow for opposition to frivolous patents.

“Complementary systems like these will reduce abuse of the system by pharmaceutical companies, and help to increase access to medicines. However, the policy requires more detail about the practicalities of implementing these reforms,” Umunyana Rugege of SECTION27 said, adding: “The DTI’s policy must also be more specific about how it will overcome legitimate patent barriers when pharmaceutical companies charge exorbitant prices.”

Compulsory licensing never applied

The cumbersome process for using legal flexibilities such as compulsory licensing has never been applied to gain access to more affordable versions of these drugs. Consequently, medical aid schemes opt to exclude expensive treatments for breast cancer or leukemia from their prescribed minimum benefits, as paying for these drugs would hike up premiums for all members.

The public sector is also unable to purchase some patented drugs like linezolid for the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) because one pill in South Africa costs 676 rand ($68) – even though far more affordable generic versions are available from India.

“Today if you are trying to test new combinations of patented drugs to treat HIV or TB, you have to negotiate with the rights holder, just to conduct research in South Africa,” said MSF’s Julia Hill. “This is impractical, and delays the development of better treatments for neglected groups, like children with HIV, who are not considered a profitable enough market for big pharmaceutical companies.”

BRICS partners implementing patent reforms

South Africa is not alone in the process of undertaking patent law reform to improve access to medicines. Its BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) partners, such as India, as well as Argentina have already implemented a number of reforms similar to those proposed by the South African DTI.

In Brazil, a patent law reform bill currently before parliament has received widespread support, in a similar fashion to global backing for South African reforms. Over 100 organisations and experts have signed on to an open letter to the DTI in the past week alone – supporting the changes called for by MSF, TAC, and SECTION27.

Photo courtesy of the TAC.