Fix SA’s patent laws, Ramaphosa, or virus vaccine won’t help us

President Cyril Ramaphosa has been alerted to a second Covid-19 emergency if there was no swift action in reforming a patent “monopoly” system currently hampering the country’s access to tools needed to respond effectively to pandemics.

Fix the Patent Laws (FTPL), a coalition of 40 patient advocacy groups and civil society organisations, has lamented that access to medicines and other health products in South Africa was hampered by a patent system that allowed for the granting of an excessive number of unwarranted patent monopolies.

This results in exorbitant and arbitrary pricing by multinational pharmaceutical companies out for a profit at the expense of those in need, the campaign co-founded by Section27, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in 2011, has said.

In a letter to Ramaphosa, the coalition reminded him that this has been evident for HIV and resulted in the delay in the scale-up of lifesaving treatment, and the loss of countless lives.

“Without swift action, we will face a second emergency for (Covid-19) as we are prevented from accessing the tools we need to respond effectively,” the letter warned.

Sibongile Tshabalala, of TAC, said the country was in a national state of disaster responding to Covid-19, but warned that “we will find ourselves in a second emergency” if the patents laws are not fixed to ensure people could access new treatments or vaccines after they are proven effective.

“It will mean that far more people will continue to get sick with [Covid-19] and possibly die. We lost thousands of comrades and friends because they couldn’t access the HIV medicines they needed due to high prices driven by unwarranted patent monopolies,” she said.

The coalition has urged government to put in place a temporary moratorium on the issuance of patents on all Covid-19-related health products and institute an automatic compulsory licensing mechanism to ensure access to products that have already been granted patents, or that are pending.

“People across the country suffering from diseases ranging from cancer and TB, to epilepsy and mental illness, are all affected by similar access problems as a result of patent barriers. It is the widespread nature of this issue that makes the finalising of patent law reforms all the more urgent,” said Lotti Rutter, from Health GAP.

The coalition said two years ago, Cabinet adopted the South African Policy on Intellectual Property, Phase 1, that contained important commitments to reform the country’s patent laws to prioritise people’s constitutionally guaranteed right of access to healthcare services.

It said this paved the way for a new, progressive intellectual property regime in South Africa, almost two decades after the signing of the Doha Declaration on Public Health – a critical international agreement confirming countries’ ability to amend their laws to incorporate pro-public health safeguards.

“The time is now to finalise the patent law reform process – we cannot wait any longer. The draft legislation, primarily the amendments to the Patents Act, should be released for public comment and quickly promulgated into law.”

The IP Policy recommended multiple reforms to the law aimed at protecting public health.

“This is needed now more than ever to address the [Covid-19] pandemic and to ensure that everyone has equal access to diagnostics, treatments and vaccines, when they become available,” said Umunyana Rugege, of Section 27.

Countries like Brazil, Spain, Israel, Germany and Canada are now taking steps to override patents and other exclusive rights in anticipation of ensuring the accessibility of future Covid-19-related health products.

The coalition added that not only will these steps allow countries to avoid high prices, they will also allow countries to expand sources of supply, including through domestic manufacturing to help overcome preferential access and hoarding by rich countries to lifesaving Covid-19 health products.

– siphom@citizen.co.za

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