VIDEO: TRIPS Flexibilities, COVID-19 and Local Production of Medicines in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Region
The advent of COVID 19 has exposed the need for SADC Countries to avoid over-reliance on imported pharmaceuticals/diagnostics and to start producing essential medicines and diagnostics within the region. This is because the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken global solidarity in health care and triggered health care nationalism. The COVID-19 crisis has also made it difficult to source medicines from outside Africa due to a number of factors. These include the imposition of national lockdowns, shutdowns of some manufacturing plants, travel restrictions and export bans or restrictions.
The foregoing emergency measures and restrictions, as well as attendant increases in transportation costs, have triggered massive hikes in pharmaceutical and diagnostic prices. These developments have strengthened the case for local/regional production of pharmaceuticals and the use of TRIPS Flexibilities to stimulate and support local/regional production of medicines. However, there are a number of barriers to the use of TRIPS flexibilities in the region, including the existence of the ARIPO patent system, which does not fully support the use of flexibilities by countries within the region. Individual countries have also been slow to update their laws to take full advantage of TRIPS flexibilities to promote local production. Against this background this presentation argues for the urgent reform of the ARIPO and domestic patent systems in order to eliminate barriers to the use of flexibilities by SADC Member states. It is hoped that these reforms will stimulate local production of generics and intra-regional trade in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics.
Speakers
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Chikosa Banda
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Tapiwanashe Kujinga
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Lonias Ndlovu
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