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South Africa must urgently revoke patents on key COVID-19 treatments and vaccines

CTN News

 

MSF and South Africa’s People’s Health Movement also call for long overdue patent law reform

Johannesburg/Geneva, 9 February 2022 — With patents in South Africa likely to undermine people’s access to COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), along with People’s Health Movement (PHM), called on the South African government to seek the revocation of the patents granted to pharmaceutical corporations Eli Lilly and Moderna on a COVID-19 medicine and an mRNA vaccine. The groups also called on the South African government to take urgent steps to reform the country’s outdated patent law that leads to the proliferation of unmerited patent monopolies.

“It is outrageous that people in South Africa are being denied access to lifesaving COVID-19 treatments like baricitinib because of patents.”

Dr Tom Ellman

Director Southern Africa Medical Unit

MSF

A patent granted in South Africa to US corporation Eli Lilly for baricitinib is currently limiting access to affordable generic versions of this medicine that was recently recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for people with severe and critical COVID-19*. Baricitinib is an oral drug that is easy to administer, especially in resource-limited settings, such as those where MSF operates. Generic manufacturers in India and Bangladesh have made baricitinib available for under US$7 per 14-day treatment course, which is significantly less than Eli Lilly’s prohibitive price of $1,109 per 14-day treatment course in the US. However, Eli Lilly’s patent monopoly on baricitinib in South Africa blocks production and access to these lower-cost generic versions in the country, so the price of baricitinib, provided by Eli Lilly, would remain prohibitive…

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