Pretoria - The government did not care enough and was letting hundreds of people die, thus leaving countless orphans.
This was the message on Tuesday of breast cancer survivor Babalwa Malkas and 31 patient groups supported by 1 000 activists, who marched to the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) under the slogan #FixThePatentLaws. They were calling for the amendment of patent laws regarding medicine supply.
Malkas, 41, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011, and after taking the decision to remove her breast, she was advised of further treatment that would help her. “After the treatment was advised to me by my oncologist, my medical aid refused to pay, but we eventually convinced them and it was approved. To treat one person costs R500 000; what happens to those who are not as fortunate as I am to have medical aid?”
Malkas said within her support group in Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape, many survivors had recurrences of cancer which could possibly have been prevented if drugs and treatment were available at reasonable prices.
“We discovered there was a pharmaceutical company that was awarded the patent rights for this particular drug for 30 years. As a result it has no competition and has made it unreasonably expensive. Our people are dying and the government is not lifting a finger to change the situation,” said Malkas.
Lotti Rutter, of the Treatment Action Campaign, said the march was organised to demand that urgent steps be taken to fix the patent laws in the country to ensure that everyone had access to the medicines they needed.
“Currently medicines other than ARV treatment are very expensive and that is because South Africa has failed to use any of the flexibility allowed by international laws to protect public health.
“While countries are allowed to check all applications, South Africa simply grants the patent to anyone who has the right paperwork money,” said Rutter.
She said because of the lack of proper patent laws, pharmaceutical companies were making small to moderate changes to their medicine and getting new patents over and over again. “The way things stand, it has created a situation where people don’t get access to medicines for a long period of time. A simple example would be with breast cancer treatment which costs R150 000 in India while we have to fork out R500 000.”
Rutter said while other countries were coming off patents, South Africa would have the laws in place until 2033. In a memorandum, the group said that ever since the government committed to reforming the patent laws in a draft National Policy on Intellectual Property in 2013, nothing had changed.
“The government has a moral, legal and constitutional obligation to ensure that everyone can access the medicines they need,” said Cassey Chambers, of the South African Depression and Anxiety Group.