Expensive patents are putting lives at risk, warn activists

A march to protest against South Africa’s debilitating patent laws is set to take place today, at the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC). 

Activists from the Fix the Patent Laws Campaign (FTPL) are urging government to change intellectual property laws to allow more people to access lifesaving medicine for life-threatening ailments, such as cancer, HIV, Covid-19, tuberculosis, mental health and diabetes. 

“A full course of bendamustine to treat lymphoma cancer, for example, costs R50,616 per person and is unavailable in the public sector because of its price. 

“Generics for this medicine in India cost only R9,024, but because of our outdated patent laws, prices are out of reach for thousands who need the medicines,” the organisation said. 

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FTPL will be handing a memorandum to Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel. Below is a list of some of their demands: 

• Immediately publish the amendments to the Patents Act drafted by the DTIC for public comment.
• Use your constitutional powers to, for the first time, issue compulsory licenses for Covid-19 treatments and vaccines;
• Review the legal status of patent applications on all Covid-19 medical technologies, including granted or pending applications on Moderna’s mRNA vaccine;
• Provide strict examination of all patents for pharmaceutical products, now and in future, so that patents are not automatically granted for life-saving medicines, which limits supply and increases prices of these medicines.
• Develop an easy to use administrative process to enable third party organisations to challenge pharmaceutical patents, which the current system does not allow.

Moderna ‘monopoly’

FTPL also expressed its concerns that Moderna has had at least two patents accepted by the South African Patents Office – despite not registering their mRNA vaccine with the South Africa Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra). 

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They said Modern patents have been rejected by at least 11 other countries because “the patents would unreasonably limit access to the lifesaving medicine”. 

In South Africa, FTPL said a lack of a patent examination system was the reason patents such as Moderna’s were “automatically accepted”.

There is also the risk that, should the pandemic continue past this year, and the need for booster shots increases, Moderna’s already patented vaccine will result in South Africa not being able to manufacture low-cost generics, or develop manufacturing capacity though the Tech Transfer Hub. 

Compiled by Nica Richards