EAST AFRICA: Massive Aid Needed to Stave off Disaster
Denis Foynes
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 25 2011 (IPS) – International donors have given more than one billion dollars to ease the famine in Somalia and elsewhere in the Horn of Africa, but U.N. officials say another billion will be needed to prevent the situation from deteriorating in other areas.
Somali women rush to a feeding centre after the soldiers of the Transitional Federal Government cannot contain the crowd in Badbado, an IDP camp. Credit: UN Photo/Stuart Price
The crisis in the East of Africa could be spira…
Changes Coming to South Africa’s Patent System
Patented drugs limit patients’ access to public health care. Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Dec 12 2013 (IPS) – Paul Anley, chief executive officer of Pharma Dynamics, one of South Africa’s leading generic drug companies, wants to sell a cheaper version of popular birth control pill Yasmin. But he legally cannot because German multinational Bayer has patent protection on the drug in South Africa, even though its initial patent expired in 2010.
Generic versions of the contraceptive are available in the United States and Europe, where Bayer’s patent has been revoked.
Anley says South Africa’s patent system …