Why South Africa’s health minister is so worried about India caving in to big pharma
▻http://scroll.in/article/745344/why-south-africas-health-minister-is-so-worried-about-india-caving-in-to-big-
South Africa is in the process of introducing a progressive Intellectual property law modelled largely on the Indian Patent Act. Stating that the country was following India’s footsteps but was worried that India was turning pro-pharma, Motsoaledi said, “I have heard a rumour that they [India] want to reverse their [IP] policies. We are very scared and worried [about the developments in India]. Why are they reversing these policies?
(...) [Motsoaledi] was widely quoted in national and international media as saying, “I am not using strong words; I am using appropriate words. This is #genocide.”
He also called upon all South Africans to fight the plot of “satanic magnitude....to the last drop of their blood”. The memo essentially laid out a ‘secret’ plan by #PhRMA (Big Pharma’s lobby body) to discredit the National IP Policy and prevent its passing in Parliament. This has come to be known as the Pharma Gate scandal.
#inde #afrique_du_sud #brevets #médicaments #sida #génériques #santé