South Africa, Colombia Fighting Drugmakers Over Access to TB, HIV Drugs

Subject : Science and Tech

Section: Health

Context:

South Africa, Colombia and other countries are taking a more combative approach toward drugmakers and pushing back on policies that deny cheap treatment to millions of people with tuberculosis and HIV.

Details:

During the COVID-19 pandemic, rich countries bought most of the world’s vaccines early, leaving few shots for poor countries and creating a disparity the World Health Organization called “a catastrophic moral failure.” and is termed as “Vaccine inequality”.
Now, poorer countries are trying to become more self-reliant.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, Africa produced fewer than 1% of all vaccines made globally but used more than half of the world’s supply.
President Nelson Mandela’s government in South Africa eventually suspended patents to allow wider access to AIDS drugs. That prompted more than 30 drugmakers to take it to court in 1998, in a case dubbed “Mandela vs. Big Pharma.”
While many other developing countries allow legal challenges to a patent or a patent extension, South Africa has no clear law that allows it to do that.
In its annual report on tuberculosis, the World Health Organization said there were more than 10 million people sickened by the disease last year and 1.3 million deaths. After COVID-19, tuberculosis is the world’s deadliest infectious disease, and it is now the top killer of people with HIV.

Bedaquiline:

It is used for treating people with drug-resistant versions of tuberculosis.
It was developed by Johnson and Johnson. In July 2023, Johnson & Johnson’s patent on the drug expired in South Africa, but the company had it extended until 2027.
The South African government then began investigating the company’s pricing policies.
- In South Africa Tuberculosis (TB) killed more than 50,000 people in 2021, making it the country’s leading cause of death.
In March 2023, India broke the patent of Johnson and Johnson over Bedaquiline, thus giving a way to develop generic medicines for TB.

HIV drug in Colombia:

In Colombia, the government declared that it would issue a compulsory license for the HIV drug dolutegravir without permission from the drug’s patent-holder, Viiv Health Care.
It is done to ensure affordable AIDS treatment for its people.

Doctors without Border (or Médecins Sans Frontières):

It was founded in 1971, in the aftermath of the Biafran famine of the Nigerian Civil War.
It is a charity that provides humanitarian medical care.
It is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) of French origin known for its projects in conflict zones and in countries affected by endemic diseases.
The organisation provides care for diabetes, drug-resistant infections, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, tropical and neglected diseases, tuberculosis, vaccines and COVID-19.