A World Health Assembly resolution this year proposed that drug prices could be reduced if countries forced pharmaceutical companies to be open about what it really costs to produce medicines. The plan is to give governments a way to enforce changes in the way medicine prices are set. In South Africa, cancer patients pay exorbitant prices to stay alive. Blood cancer patients are paying over R 800 000 for a year’s worth of one chemotherapy medicine, according to a report by the Cancer Alliance. Loopholes in South African patent laws are said to be one reason medicine prices are this high. Currently, companies that bring new drugs onto the market are awarded market monopolies through being awarded long-term patents that prevent anyone else from manufacturing a similar drug for many years. For example, the company that brought the blood cancer drug in question onto the market has had protection from competitors for 40 years, according to a briefing paper by the Initiative for Medicines, Access and Knowledge. In an overhauled system, it is proposed that market monopolies be capped at 15 years with small rewards offered when new, good drugs enter the market.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
The European Union's (EU's) commissioner of trade called on SA in early February 2006 to use its considerable influence among developing countries to facilitate concessions in services and industrial goods in world trade talks. In a veiled threat, commissioner Peter Mandelson warned that developing countries should make concessions quickly or risk losing the gains made in the Doha round of negotiations to date.
EU trade chief Peter Mandelson dangled a carrot in front of SA's negotiators at the weekend, hinting at greater access to European markets in exchange for SA returning to the negotiating table to resolve a standoff over a stalled regional trade deal with the EU. But his promises may not be enough to persuade SA. SA's chief trade negotiator, Xavier Carim, said that improved market access - evidently offered on agriculture, fisheries and industrial goods - did not ease concern that EU demands would limit SA's policy options.
The TRIPS plus provisions called for by the United States are worrisome in as far as access to HIV/AIDS life saving drugs, and SADC leaders should be ary of these provisions. SADC member countries should amend their current legislation to take advantage of the regulatory flexibility permitted by TRIPS before making any Intellectual Property-related commitments. SADC should reject any TRIPS-plus proposals and ensure that the standards of Intellectual Property protection in TRIPS remain the minimum standards.
The author begins by presenting a brief background on the SADC Regional Economic Integration Agenda and the pertinent decisions made by the Heads of State and Government in this regard, and reminds us of the purpose of the workdhop in preparing for the launching of the FTA in 2008. The author insists the need to create awareness in this process cannot be over emphasised, and elaborates that the process of creating awareness on the SADC Free Trade Area (FTA) would require a meaningful and effective involvement by all the stakeholders.
A SADC Task Force of Ministers of Trade, Finance and Agriculture met on 13 July 2008 in Lusaka, Zambia to discuss measures to mitigate currently increasing food prices, the impending food crisis and ways to improve the food security situation in the SADC region. The Ministerial Task Force noted that prices of food commodities worldwide have risen sharply over the past couple of years and even more sharply from January 2007 to date. There are a number of factors that are believed to contribute to the observed increase in world food prices. Key among them are the increasingly poor weather conditions, high energy prices, worldwide reduction in levels of food stocks, massive shift in crop cultivation towards bio-fuels, increased consumption of food in emerging economies such as India and China, commodity speculation, and inadequate investment in agriculture in recent decades. However, prices in the SADC region haven’t risen quite as sharply as world prices, which provides for a window of opportunity for measures to be taken for minimising future rises in food prices. The Ministerial Task Force came up with several measures the Member States and the SADC Secretariat should take in order to reduce current and future food crises in the region. These include: increasing the levels of investment in agriculture, including aligning national budgets to the 10% of national budgets agreed to by SADC Heads of State and Government in May 2004; improving access to agricultural inputs especially fertiliser through the provision of temporary subsidies to smallholder farmers; expediting the harmonisation of Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary Standards measures and removal of non tariff barriers within the region; encouraging financial institutions and NGOs to prioritise agriculture and extend credit to small scale farmers especially women and vulnerable groups; introducing social security systems targeted at the vulnerable to cushion them from the impact of increased food prices; facilitating easy flow of information among Member States and with SADC Secretariat; facilitating the establishment of a Regional Food Reserve Facility; and creating appropriate incentives for private sector involvement in services related to agricultural and food security.
The SADC region is on track towards meeting the major objective of its trade protocol which is to “achieve a Free Trade Area by 2008, when substantially all trade would be dutyfree.” Implementation of the SADC Trade Protocol and other instruments affecting the economic development of the region has shown remarkable progress in 2003, the SADC Executive Secretary, Dr Prega Ramsamy said in his year-end briefing. The Trade Protocol is the most important legal instrument in the region’s quest for economic integration, and is in its third year of implementation since ratification in January 2000.
One of the main agenda items of the 2008 SADC Summit is the launch of the Free Trade Area. Having completed the critical tasks of the SADC Trade Protocol, the SADC FTA was launched during the Summit on 17th August 2008 under the theme: “SADC Free Trade Area for Growth, Development and Wealth Creation”. SADC attained the Free Trade Area as of January 2008, although three of its Member States, namely Angola, DRC and Malawi are still addressing challenges facing them in the implementing the Protocol on Trade. The region was also reported at the Summit to have recorded significant progress and positive developments in the core areas of social and human development. In the health sector, positive results were recorded in combating HIV and AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. Measures were put in place to increase access to preventive and curative services. Consequently, prevalence and incidence rates for HIV and Malaria declined in certain population categories and some parts of the region, with a decline in both prevalence and incidence of HIV especially among the youth aged 15 to 24 years and pregnant women attending ante-natal clinics. A 90% reduction of malaria incidence was recorded in countries in the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative where malaria cross border control initiatives are being implemented. These emerging positive indicators are due to improvements and strengthening of health systems in Member States.
Chief negotiators of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have "initialled" the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union during a joint negotiation session in Pretoria, South Africa on 15 July.
SciDev.Net’s focus groups in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are part of a global programme that aims to understand regional needs and contexts for science and technology in development. The programme started in 2012 in South East Asia and the Pacific, and reports are available online at www.scidev.net/global/content/learning-series.html This report highlights the key areas of interest in for development, and barriers and gaps in the use of science and technology evidence. It also provides suggestions for how communications about science and technology can be improved.