“Fix the Patent Laws” campaign

Fix the Patent Laws

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), together with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), launched the “Fix the Patent Laws” campaign to draw attention to South Africa’s national patent laws that have hindered access to affordable medicines.

The campaign asks for a reform of these laws, which have made medicines “unaffordable, unavailable, or unsuitable” for South African citizens.

“For the last six years the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) have been developing a policy to reform these laws and in October we submitted recommendations to improve these proposed changes. We are marching to demand that the DTI urgently finalise the policy ahead of the elections. A policy that has the potential to increase access to many essential medicines - saving the lives of millions of people across South Africa,” says TAC.

TAC and MSF, joined by Section 27, are calling on the public and civil society to join their march next week. There will be two marches, one in Pretoria and another in Cape Town: Tuesday, 11 March - Marching in Pretoria to the Department of Trade and Industry. Start location TBC. Assembling 10h30.

Thursday 13th March - Marching in Cape Town to Parliament. Start location in Keizersgracht by the University of Technology. Assembling 10h00.

For more information about the “Fix the Patent Laws” campaign, click here.

Comments

Keep comments free of racism, sexism, homophobia and abusive language. People's Assembly reserves the right to delete and edit comments

(For newest comments first please choose 'Newest' from the 'Sort by' dropdown below.)