Thread by @_HassanF

If *you* want the economy to *open*, travel to resume, businesses to flourish, health care systems to not collapse, education to continue, then how do you defend patent monopolies in a pandemic? Direct causal link to reduced access, higher pricing & rationing.

#NoCovidMonopolies

And IF TRIPS waiver proposal does not work because rich countries wish to remain barriers to potential life saving interventions, then in THIS pandemic we expect our @GovernmentZA to issue compulsory licenses.
Benevolence & hope are not enforceable, rights are.
#NoCovidMonopolies

Also, can @ParliamentofRSA pass the Patents Act amendment already.

We had civil disobedience, patent defiance, pricing cases against phrma before, we campaigned for multiple licenses to make generics, we WILL build & mobilise again. Phrma does not get to blame man-made vaccine shortages on our governments in the South. This is their doing.

The naming and shaming we used in the global AIDS access movement era, will have to be repeated, as things stand. Otherwise, again, access will be for the rich, insured for the north. We, last.

Finally, those 4 vaccine trials in South Africa, if they work and approved, those phrma companies must ensure affordable access for our population. Not to, would be many things, bit mainly unethical and just plain wrong.
#NoCovidMonopolies

The cruel irony would be if we research & test 4 vaccines on our people, & potentially manufacture 2 vaccines via our workers (awaiting details) but CANNOT access it locally at the same time as the North.

*Then* we must ask-why did government & regulators permit this injustice?

Opposition parties have alot to say about liquor bans, lockdown rules & curfews, what are their views on patent monopolies & rich nations pre-purchases that limit our access to life saving interventions?
Even now, in a devastating pandemic, will they defend phrmas patent claims?

There is also a worrying, incorrect narrative of 'private money' being used to fund R&D. Historically billion$ of public funds have been used to research many medical products including Covid-19 vaccines. This is why we advocate for pricing & costing transparency.
@Public_Citizen