UKZN Academic Addresses Pan African Parliament on Access to Medicines

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Law academic Professor Yousuf Vawda focused on various issues during his address on advocacy measures to improve access to medicines in Africa at the policy roundtable meeting at the Pan African Parliament hosted by the African Union in Johannesburg.

Vawda said that the intellectual property landscape had changed since the adoption of the World Trade Organisation’s Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement in 1994. This had negatively affected the rights and abilities of people in developing countries to have access to the necessary medicines, educational materials and other products given monopoly protection by TRIPS.

Vawda also explored the issue of “flexibilities” – the opportunities available in that agreement to improve access – such as compulsory licences, setting high standards for granting patents, procedures for opposing patent applications on public health and public interest grounds, various exceptions to patent rights, and the use of parallel importation.

Vawda pointed out that these access-friendly options were not only permissible in international law, but also mandated by the African Union’s own Roadmap on AIDS, TB and malaria. Thus, countries were obligated at a minimum to legislate and implement them.

‘It required will on the part of political leaders to adopt these measures in the interests of the public, and to stand up to pressures in trade and other negotiations to resist the dictates of developed countries and the commercial interests that they routinely promote.’

Vawda also raised concerns that while many of the AU’s policies were aligned to promoting access, such as the AU Draft Model Law on Medicines Regulatory Harmonisation, others such as the Statute to establish the Pan African Intellectual Property Organisation (PAIPO) appeared to do the opposite, and were designed to shore up vested interests.

He also pointed to other areas of policy incoherence, such as the laws in several African countries criminalising transmission of HIV, commercial sex workers and relationships between gay persons. These were prime examples of the failure of some African legislators to protect the human rights of “marginalised” groups in those societies.

Vawda challenged parliamentarians to engage in critical introspection, saying that the instances mentioned were inconsistent with their obligations under international, regional and domestic human rights instruments, and contrary to the spirit of Ubuntu.

Among the resolutions emanating from the Roundtable are plans to:

·        Review laws and policies that affect access to services for key populations;

·        Review the PAIPO framework to ensure that it addresses the social and health issues related to intellectual property rights and patents; and

·        Ensure that Ministers responsible for WTO TRIPS consult broadly on the key issues for negotiation, to ensure that they are adequately prepared for the negotiations and South to South Co-operation.

-          UKZNDabaOnline