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At a webinar around the theme “Inequities to cancer medicines in South Africa”, Salome Meyer from non-profit organisation Cancer Alliance said on Tuesday that Covid-19 had served to further prove the inequities of the South African health system and that “Availability” of medicines needed to be coupled with “Affordability”, which would then translate into “Access” to medicines for everyone in need.
Quoting former president Nelson Mandela, Meyer said “health cannot be a question of income; it is a basic human right”.
The Cancer Alliance produced a report in 2017 titled
Patent Barriers of Cancer Medicines that showed patents blocked the availability of more accessible generic medicines. Meyer said the report stated that only seven of the 21 registered cancer medicines available in the private sector were available in the public health sector.
VACCINE WRAP | NCCC mulls tighter border rules amid fears of imported variants
7 May 2021 3:12 PM
CapeTalk gives you a round-up of the latest vaccine news every week.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) is deliberating on the issue of border control.
This comes amid concerns around the possible importation of the B.1.617 variant now dominating in India as well as other variants of concern.
Minister Mkhize says local scientists are working hard to examine the samples taken from Covid-19 positive patients that traveled to SA from India.
At the same time, he says there has been a worrying trend of increasing Covid-19 cases in every province, with the notable exception of the Eastern Cape.
The big vaccine patent waiver decision: It s like horse trading now
6 May 2021 6:57 PM
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Tough negotiations lie ahead for WTO members on lifting Covid-19 vaccine patent protections, says Salome Meyer (Cancer Alliance).
The US has announced it s supporting a move to lift patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines, temporarily.
The aim is to make vaccines more accessible to hasten the end of the pandemic.
South Africa and India have been at the forefront of the push for the waiver on vaccine intellectual property (IP) protections at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Weeks of tough negotiations lie ahead for WTO members.