Abstract
Access to essential drugs and medicines is a major determinant of health outcomes and the ability of the State to meet its public health objectives and obligations. Several countries have made substantial progress towards increasing access to essential medicines, but access to essential drugs and medicines in developing countries like South Africa is far from adequate. A major reason for South Africa’s lack of access to medicines is its present patent laws which offer strong monopolies to patent holders, failure to adequately examine patent applications thus paving way for “evergreening practices, and, also its failure to utilise the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Properties flexibilities in a manner that ensures wider access to health care services, particularly access to essential drugs and services. Noting that the end result of a patent right is a restriction on the introduction of the patented product into the market; prices of patented pharmaceutical products tend to increase. The effect of a patent on the price of patented drug or medicine and coupled with the prohibition of the production of cheaper generic versions without the license of the patent right holder, have been associated with the problem of access to medicine, especially in developing countries...
LL.M. (Intellectual Property Law)