23 October 2014Generics

South Africa urged to speed up patent law change

The South African government has been urged to act quickly and honour its plans to overhaul its patent laws, which some have claimed could lead to an increase in affordable generic medicines.

In an open letter signed by more than 80 organisations and individuals, including Médecins Sans Frontières, South Africa’s Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) was urged to “prioritise the lives and wellbeing of its people” over the interests of pharmaceutical companies.

The letter was handed to government representatives during the National Summit on IP and Access to Medicines conference, held on Monday (October 20) in Pretoria.

Organised by South African-based group Treatment Action Campaign, the summit was set up to encourage swift introduction of new patent laws.

The letter, addressed to President Jacob Zuma and the minister of trade and industry, Rob Davies, said signatories supported the government’s longstanding efforts to change its patent laws but urged it to implement reforms in time for its own estimate of this year.

Explaining problems with the current laws, the letter said: “South Africa’s current patent laws and policies are prone to abuse by pharmaceutical companies. Companies prolong monopolies by filing multiple patents on the same medicine over time.

“This has a chilling effect on prices for a wide range of medicines.”

The government’s proposed reforms, falling under the National IP Policy, were outlined last year.

Among the plans include implementing a tiered patent system that could re-introduce pre-grant opposition procedures, most notably for pharmaceutical patents.

Government databases such as the Medicines Control Council might also be integrated to prevent companies from holding onto patents by making small changes, known as ‘evergreening’.

The letter said that, although government representatives have made several guarantees and announcements over the past year that the policy would be finalised and released during 2014, it has still not materialised.

The letter concluded: “If the South African government is to honour its history of supporting access to medicines, the best possible action it could take would be to release a final IP policy as soon as possible.”

The DTI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.