Invitation to Cancer Alliance ‘Patent Reform’ Media Round Table / Webinar for World Cancer Day
Please find below an invitation to an important Media Round Table / Webinar event on 30 January 2018, as part of World Cancer Day 2018, for your participation.
The Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) is one of 26 proud non-profit organisations of the Cancer Alliance working across the cancer continuum of care, to provide a platform of collaboration for civil society to speak with ‘one voice’, to affect change for those affected by cancer.
As part of the Fix the Patent Law campaign we are advocating for patent reform, that will allow for access to affordable medicines for cancer and other non-communicable disease patients.
Invitation:
Access to Cancer Medicines in South Africa – Media Roundtable or Webinar
In preparation for World Cancer Day 2018, join Kwanele Asante, Chairperson of the Ministerial Advisory Commission on the Prevention and Control of Cancer, in the debate about access to lifesaving medicines and our demand for policy reform.
When:
Tuesday, 30 January, at 11 am
Venue:
- University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
- iThemba Labs, Cape Town; or
- Online via webinar
RSVP:
To RSVP to attend the event in person or via webinar, please contact ursula@conversations2.co.za
Final venue and login details will be supplied when you RSVP.
Why are we holding this meeting?
Cancer rates in South Africa are expected to rise by as much as 85% by 2030. Rapidly rising medicine prices are adding to this growing cancer burden.
In spite of this, our research shows that South Africa routinely grants and upholds patents that could have been challenged and rejected. The result? Some lifesaving medicines are available in other countries at less than half the cost.
Many are only available to private sector patients, even though they are on the WHO Essential Medicines list. A revision in South Africa’s intellectual property policy could see the prices of medicines drop by as much as 90%.
To commemorate World Cancer Day, the Cancer Alliance will be announcing the eight medicines which will be the focus of a concerted two year campaign to change the path of cancer treatment in our country.
Discussants will include:
Malebona Precious Matsoso, Director General of the National Department of Health and member of the UN High Level Panel on Access to Medicine;
Xolelwa Mlumbi Peter, Deputy Director General at the dti to discuss intellectual property (TBC);
Professor Paul Ruff, Head of Medical Oncology, University of Witwatersrand, member of MCC, Essential Medicine’s Committee;
James Love,International patent and access activist, Union for Affordable Cancer Treatment (UACT); and
Sue Johnson, multiple myeloma survivor
