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 lack of access to COVID-19 medical tools threatens countries’ ability to respond to the virus, especially developing countries. We believe that this proposal will promote and expedite equitable access to all health technologies in all countries.
We call on all countries to support the proposal to the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council for a temporary waiver of all patents on products needed to test, treat or vaccinate against COVID-19, and to act with urgency. COVID-19 is a global health crisis, and one that affects working-class and poor people disproportionately. The world needs bold steps such as this that prioritise the needs of vulnerable populations above profits and above nationalism.
“While the waiver will not by itself lead to access to COVID-19 health technologies, it is an important step towards equitable access,” says Executive Director at SECTION27 and FTPL member Umunyana Rugege. “In South Africa, we would like to see the draft amendments to the Patents Act published without delay to ensure that the legal environment is readied for the introduction of a range of diagnostics, medicines and vaccines.”
The FTPL coalition has called on the South African government to take the following steps to help fight COVID-19:
- Put a temporary moratorium on granting patents on COVID-19 related products as they are proven effective.
- Automatic compulsory licensing of COVID-19 related health products with existing or pending patents.
- Fix the Patent Laws urgently to ensure use of all legal flexibilities to improve access to health products.
The South African government has shown exemplary leadership on the world stage to ensure that developing and middle-income countries are not left behind while wealthy nations secure deals with pharmaceutical companies, and that monopolies do not stand in the way of widespread African access to COVID-19 vaccines. This is an important opportunity for countries to stand in solidarity and support the call that would ensure all countries stand to benefit from efforts to fight the pandemic.
South Africa’s leadership of the African Union and initiatives like the COVAX facility, and the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator have put solidarity before nationalism, and FTPL is fully behind our government in its quest to protect public health and ensure equitable access to medical products.
FTPL has joined a global community of civil society organisations calling for the urgent adoption of the Waiver. You can read the letter from civil society here.
JOHANNESBURG, 14th AUGUST 2017 – On 8 August 2017, the Department of Trade and Industry published the Draft Intellectual Property Policy of the Republic of South Africa, Phase I, 2017. The Fix the Patent Laws Campaign (FTPL) welcomes its publication for public comment.
The FTPL, a coalition of 34 patient advocacy groups, welcomes the clear statements concerning the critical importance of advancing the Constitutionally guaranteed right of access to healthcare services. The policy points the way towards ensuring everyone in South Africa can access the medicines they need. As pointed out in the draft policy, South Africa currently grants many poor quality patents that are rejected in both other developing countries and in developed countries such as the United States. The draft policy shows an encouraging awareness that it is ultimately people in need of medicines and the South African economy that pays the price for our free-for-all patent system.
The draft policy states that the final policy must “first and foremost engender the ethos of the South African Constitution” and that a developmental and rights centred approach to IP is “urgently necessary”. We welcome the government’s commitments to cooperate to achieve the advancement of Constitutional rights and developmental goals and to do so urgently. The inter-departmental coordination between key departments, including Trade and Industry (DTI), Health, Economic Development, International Relations and Cooperation, Science and Technology and Higher Education and Training will be critical to achieving these goals as multiple departments are responsible for the legislation in need of reform. The FTPL will hold all government stakeholders to these commitments.
The draft policy identifies public health as a priority on the basis of important public interest considerations. It indicates that the DTI, together with key government departments, intends to address substantively in the immediate term, access to medicines, vaccines and diagnostics and South Africa’s approach to international IP cooperation. This policy and law reform process could thus be an important constitutional measure “to achieve the progressive realisation” of the right to health.
We welcome the DTI’s engagement with the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines report, which makes important recommendations about what states can do to ensure greater access to medicines, particularly through patent law reform.
We thank the DTI for taking account of the submissions made in respect of the IP Consultative Framework and for the substantive detail contained in this draft policy. The FTPL will study the draft policy and make comprehensive comments to assist the DTI and its government partners to implement the reforms in line with their constitutional obligations.
The following are preliminary views on the draft policy:
- We support the implementation of a system of substantive search and examination of patent applications in order to ensure compliance with existing law and to ensure that only applications deserving of patent protection are granted. We agree with the proposed incremental approach, which we submit can be achieved by starting with the pharmaceutical sector and by considering outsourcing of the examination of applications for patents.
- We support the recommendation to introduce pre- and post-grant opposition procedures in our law. We agree that such procedures are beneficial in that they ensure that the patent examiner has access to relevant information concerning the patent application. Third parties, which could include generic companies and civil society groups, will be able to assist the patent examiner in the decision-making process. We encourage an administratively cost-effective procedure and wide access to information concerning patent applications to enable third parties to intervene. We will make detailed submissions on potential interim procedures to enable such interventions as early as possible.
- We welcome the commitment to develop patentability criteria in line with the state’s “constitutional obligations, developmental goals and public policy priorities” as well as the intention to utilise available flexibilities to strike the correct balance between promoting innovation and protecting the rights of IP holders and users (patients). We hope that this stated intention will lead to fewer poor quality or ever-greening patents being granted in South Africa and that instead only true innovations will be rewarded with patent protection.
- We support the recommendations to introduce non-judicial, cost effective and expeditious mechanisms to obtain medicines through the issuance of compulsory licences. In this regard, we support the recommendation to remove the requirement that a government department first negotiate terms of a licence before approaching a court to seek a compulsory licence. This is not required by the TRIPS Agreement and should be removed through the necessary amendments to the Patents Act.
Unlike countries like Argentina, Brazil and India, South Africa has to date not taken sufficient advantage of the public health flexibilities available to it in international law in order to promote public health. This draft policy provides an opportunity that should not be squandered. It has taken 20 years of stalled policy processes to get to this point. If South Africa wishes to lead on this issue, as is expressed in the policy, the policy must be finalised with the necessary urgency and draft bills must be published with equal urgency so that the people can directly benefit from greater access to medicines for cancer, tuberculosis, HIV, mental health conditions, hepatitis, epilepsy, and many other diseases.
Many people in South Africa continue to die and suffer because they cannot access the medicines that they need. This policy provides hope to those people. It is now up to government to deliver on this promise by swiftly implementing wide-ranging law reform in line with this policy.
The FTPL will publicly share its submission and its full views on the draft policy. We encourage other stakeholders to publicly state their positions on the proposals in the draft policy. Comments are open for 60 days from the date of publication of the draft policy in the Government Gazette.
For more information and interviews please contact:
Angela Makamure
Press Officer (MSF)
Phone: 011 403 4440
Mobile: 084 977 7553
[email protected]
About the Fix the Patent Laws Campaign:
The Fix the Patent Laws is a joint coalition of 34 patient groups, including: Advocates for Breast Cancer, AmaBele Belles’ Project Flamingo, Breast Course 4 Nurses, Breast Health Foundation, Cancer Alliance, Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA), Can-Sir, CanSurvive Cancer Support, Cape Mental Health (CMH), Care for Cancer Foundation, Childhood Cancer Foundation of South Africa (CHOC), Community Technology Enablement and Collateral Harnessing (Community TECH), DiabetesSA, Doctors without Borders (MSF), EpilepsySA, Hospice Palliative Care Association (HPCA), Igazi Foundation, Look Good Feel Better, Marie Stopes South Africa, Movember, National Council Against Smoking, Oncology Nursing Association of SA, Pancreatic Cancer Network of SA, People Living With Cancer (PLWC), Pink Trees, Pocket Cancer Support, Reach for Recovery, Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorders Alliance (SABDA), SECTION27, South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG), South African Federation of Mental Health (SAFMH), South African Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance (SANCD Alliance), South African Oncology Social Workers Forum (SAOSWF), Stop Stock Outs Project (SSP), The Sunflower Fund, Treatment Action Campaign, Vrede Foundation, and Wings of Hope.
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Draft IP policy statement FTPL FINAL
Written By: Giulia Paravicini
Original Content For PoliticoPro
Britain’s competition watchdog has fined drug companies Pfizer and Flynn Pharma a total of almost £90 million for overcharging the National Health Service (NHS) for an epilepsy drug and ordered the medication’s price be reduced.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the pharma giants’ 2,600 percent overnight price hike for the phenytoin sodium capsules, used to treat epilepsy, occurred after the drug was deliberately de-branded, or “genericized,” meaning it was no longer subject to price regulation. As a result NHS spending on the drug rose from £2 million (R34.6 million) a year in 2012 to about £50 million (R866 million) in 2013.
Pfizer was slapped with a record £84.2 million fine (R1.45 billion), while distributer Flynn must pay £5.2 million (R90 million).
“The companies deliberately exploited the opportunity offered by de-branding to hike up the price for a drug which is relied upon by many thousands of patients,” said Philip Marsden, chairman of the case decision group for the CMA’s investigation, adding that U.K. prices were many times higher than the rest of the EU.
In a statement, Pfizer denied it had done anything wrong, saying it believed it “fully complies with established competition law” and will appeal the decision.
The drugs giant said the increased price of the drug was still 25 to 40 percent below the cost of an equivalent medicine by another NHS supplier.
The CMA is currently undertaking four other investigations into the pharmaceutical sector. In February the watchdog fined several drugmakers a total of £45 million (R779 million) for anti-competitive agreements and conduct in relation to the supply of anti-depressant drug paroxetine.
Fix the Patent Laws (FTPL) leas partners Medecines Sans Frontiers held their first training workshop and civil society consulting meeting on July 24th-25th at the offices of Section 27 in Johannesburg.
The training workshop brought together civil society organisations and stakeholders to learn about patent law reform. South African urgently needs to reform patent laws for medicines and technology so that patients can access treatment.
The participatory workshop brought an innovative group from different disciplines: law, activism, journalism and social media. Engaging the attendees in each section of training and, finding out from each what medications or devices would they like to see patent law reformed on.
What does this mean to the average person? South Africa’s patent office has been ever greening patents on essential drugs. Meaning small changes are made and the patents reapplied for another 20 years. This means that drug company owning the patent get to keep prices high due to exclusivity. The consumer ultimately pays the price due to unaffordability and lack of a generic version. The price paid by patients is disability, suffering and death.
There are many aspects to fixing the patent laws and the most important and first step is public awareness. Knowing what and how this problem affects the patients suffering will help us to reform the patent laws.
The laws need to be changed and the path is clear yet it is evident that the process is going to take time. It has worked in India and the same fight and reform is needed here. Evidently, patent holders don’t want profits cut and will place a stiff fight. Yet, the need is great enough for those that will greatly welcome the change.
Thanks MSF, TAC and Section 27 for making this possible. Join the movement at www.fixthepatentlaws.org
Fix the Patent Laws (FTPL) leas partners Medecines Sans Frontiers held their first training workshop and civil society consulting meeting on July 24th-25th at the offices of Section 27 in Johannesburg.
The training workshop brought together civil society organisations and stakeholders to learn about patent law reform. South African urgently needs to reform patent laws for medicines and technology so that patients can access treatment.
The participatory workshop brought an innovative group from different disciplines: law, activism, journalism and social media. Engaging the attendees in each section of training and, finding out from each what medications or devices would they like to see patent law reformed on.
What does this mean to the average person? South Africa’s patent office has been ever greening patents on essential drugs. Meaning small changes are made and the patents reapplied for another 20 years. This means that drug company owning the patent get to keep prices high due to exclusivity. The consumer ultimately pays the price due to unaffordability and lack of a generic version. The price paid by patients is disability, suffering and death.
There are many aspects to fixing the patent laws and the most important and first step is public awareness. Knowing what and how this problem affects the patients suffering will help us to reform the patent laws.
The laws need to be changed and the path is clear yet it is evident that the process is going to take time. It has worked in India and the same fight and reform is needed here. Evidently, patent holders don’t want profits cut and will place a stiff fight. Yet, the need is great enough for those that will greatly welcome the change.
Thanks MSF, TAC and Section 27 for making this possible. Join the movement at www.fixthepatentlaws.org
