This is a memorandum dated 7th August delivered to representatives from the Department for Trade and Industry, including Minister Rob Davies, ahead of a workshop in coordination with the WTO, WHO, WIPO calling on the DTI to urgently “Fix the Patent Laws” to improve South Africans’ access to medicines. You can access the original memorandum here.

India is known as the “pharmacy of the developing world,” because it supplies much of the world's demand for affordable, generic drugs. So when the Supreme Court of India issued a landmark ruling in April adopting a strict interpretation of the country's new patent law, advocates for global access to medicines celebrated. In fact, the decision in Novartis v. Union of India & Others provides an important model for other countries around the world — a step toward a “patent law 2.0” that not only helps to ensure access to medicines but might also help better align pharmaceutical innovation with public health needs.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa—After police arrested Dudley Lee in a night raid, the peddler of fake perfume landed in Pollsmoor Prison, surrounded by inmates who threatened to kill him—with their coughing.

The level of detection of tuberculosis (TB) cases in Tajikistan remains at a low level, reported the World Health Organization.

1 August - New Delhi: Civil society representatives from across India came together for the official launch of the Partnership for TB Care and Control (PTCC), held in New Delhi on 30 July.

Re: Responsible marketing and access plans for Alere’s Determine TB-­LAM antigen test for active TB

The publication "Partnering and Public Health Practice - Experience of national TB partnerships" was published by the Stop TB Partnership and WHO in June 2013. This publication presents the activities and approaches taken by 23 national TB partnerships to support the work of national TB programmes and partners in countries across the six WHO regions.

Tuberculosis is an old disease that demands new drugs. More than one million people die each year from Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections and a growing percentage of new infections—at least 9%—are caused by strains of the bacterium that can’t be killed with many of the drugs now available.

A new drug candidate has shown promising signs in treating tuberculosis. The synthetic molecule is effective in mice and bears no similarity to existing TB drugs, many of which have become inadequate as drug-resistant bacterial strains have developed. If it is shown to be safe and effective in humans, it could help to combat a disease that killed 1.4 million people in 2011.

Reported pharmaceutical association efforts to enlist opposition to the initiative are decried.