[Joint Press Release] The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) today delivered a memorandum to the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) at the National Workshop on Intellectual Property and Public Health in Pretoria, outlining needed reforms to South Africa’s patent laws in order to expand access to more affordable drugs.
The country’s current patent laws can delay the introduction of generic medicines in South Africa, limiting access for patients to more affordable treatment. Unless specific changes are incorporated into an anticipated draft intellectual property (IP) policy from the dti, South Africans will continue to pay unbearably high prices for medicines, even when lower-cost generic alternatives are available elsewhere.
Click here for the full press release
Click here for the memo from TC and MSF to the Department of Trade and Industry
