Dear all,
In the last science cafe, members agreed that we write a brief of the
discussions and post to westnile net and also put the next topic for
discussion.
Unfortunately this was agreed after the cafe had ended so I will just write
what
I can remember. Next time we shall suggest a raportuer.
The topic was intellectual property and access to medicines. This topic was
important becuase of the pending counterfeit goods bill in parliament that has
defined counterfeit in broad terms to include generic medicines which Uganda
depends on
ØDef: Intellectual property rights refers to a bundle of rights awarded by
society to individuals or organisations over creative works: inventions,
literary and artistic works and symbols, names, images, designs as a bargain
that the outcomes of the rights will benefit society at large.
Ø
ØIPRs generally can be categorised as follows: * Ø * Ø
* ØArtistic and Literary Property (cultural creations) * ØCopyright
Patents,
Industrial designs, Trademarks, Geographical Indications, Trade Secrets,
Geographical Indications
Incase of patents, the individual is to have exclusive rights for 20 years and
this is where medicines fall.
Brand medicines Vs generic medicinesIndustrial Property (functional commercial
innovations),
Brand medicines are those that are produced by the people(scientists) who
innovated them and according to international laws, they patent such drugs for
20 years without anybody reproducing them and are allowed to sell them at
whichever price they want.e.g drugs from USA, UK Germany etc.
But generic medicines are those which have been reproduced by people who didnt
innovate them. They simply copy the formula and using the data of the
innovaters, reproduce exactly the same drug according to the same international
law.e.g drugs from India and China.
It is true we have counterfeit goods in Uganda but the aim of the pending law
is
to protect IPR which does not belong to Ugandans. This law will not adress the
safety and quality issues instead will limit access to medicines. It will also
limit access to knowledge materials, students will not be able to photocopy
text
books, farmers will not replant patent ed seeds etc.
according to Trade Related Intellectual Property(TRIPS) agreement 1994,
counties were grouped into developed, developing and least developed like
Uganda. LDCs were to become TRIPs compliant in 2013 but incase of
pharmacuetilcals 2016. Developed countries were to become compliant as soon as
the law is operational and developing were to be compliant by 2005.
But Uganda is being pushed to have TRIPs plus laws even before we become TRIPS
compliant thru the counterfeit laws.
Alot was shared in the discussion but cannot put them here.
members like Akile shared the work they are doing with our very own scientists
in the biosafety committee. Jose shared his expertise on seeds as far as
hybrid
seeds are concerned and these were all useful to enrich our knowledge. Okuti
Boroa also shared the gap he has noted between scientists and farmers through
his work. And this is where cafe would come to close such by taking science to
the community.
Members then realized that Uganda is signing so many documents which will
become
a big problem to us in future but as a country we are not well positined to
bargain for good laws at international level.
However, at domestic level we should try to make good domestic laws. But the
challenge noted was also the free trade agreements Adovcacy was proposed as a
way forward but the problem again is lack of such information to the right
people.
Another challenge was also the fact that our country does not invest in
research
to support our briliant scientists to do their own research such that they can
patent their own products.
As a wayforward, members acknowledged that cafe would be a good way to enrich
us
and also come up with some solutions to our own life problems. They asked that
we post key issues discussed here and make sure this continues once a month.
The next topic was selected as life style diseases like blood presure, diabetes
and heart diseases. The facilitator was proposed to be our own Dr. Worodria
William. Patrice Mawa was to talk to him first for his availability.
Our brother Matenga was then asked to move a vote of thanks to the facilitator
and the discussion went informal.
Thanks
Christine
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