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Posted on Categories Featured, News 302 Comments on More than 500 abortions in Gulu last year, says report

More than 500 abortions in Gulu last year, says report

By Cissy Makumbi 

Gulu hospital management has called for government intervention following the release of a report showing an increase in cases of abortion in the district.

The report released on Wednesday shows that up to 568 babies were aborted in the year 2011/2012.

The authorities, who compiled the report, say there is need to save the unborn babies from the practice, common among girls who have unprotected sex for money.

In 2010/2011, about 500 unborn babies were terminated, according to the same report, although it still remains unclear whether the culprits were brought to book, since the practice is a crime under the law.

The director of the hospital, Dr Anthony Onyach, however, attributed the increase in the vice to failure by many mothers to use family planning methods, thus conceiving against their will.

“Most abortions occur among girls who report to the hospital when they are very sick after administering herbs and other drugs on themselves, while others seek help from shrines,” Mr Onyach said.

The same report indicates a drastic decline in the number of mothers seeking family planning services at the health facility. It shows that although in 2010/2011 there were at least 1,239 mothers who visited the hospital’s family planning unit, in 2011/2012, the number reduced to only 770.

Health experts attribute the increasing number of women with cervical cancer to unsafe abortions. Under the law, abortion is illegal and punishable, a situation that sees many women do it undercover with support from ill-equipped health personnel and traditional healers.

The Ministry of Health is considering the recommendations of a report it commissioned into the safety and legality of abortion. The report proposes legalising abortion in specific cases such as rape.

However, the debate on legalising abortion has not been met with open arms, with the proposal opposed by many Ugandans, most arguments based on religious, cultural and moral grounds

Source: http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/More+than+500+abortions+in+Gulu+last+year++says+report/-/688334/1506654/-/vx98ym/-/index.html

Posted on Categories Featured, News 90 Comments on Limp courts have potential to undermine human rights

Limp courts have potential to undermine human rights

CARMEL RICKARD

carmelrickard.posterous.com

IF you want to see what a toothless court looks like – and what happens when such a court guards people’s rights – turn your eyes northwards to Uganda. Its appeal court, which doubles as a constitutional court when required, has delivered a decision that makes for sobering reading.

It deals with a “petition” brought by, among others, relatives of two women who died in childbirth under horrific circumstances at state health institutions.

The petition has made legal history as it’s the first challenge to government health policies and practices brought under Uganda’s 1995 constitution.

An estimated 100 Ugandan women die in childbirth every week, a statistic that prompted the Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development to compile an extensive constitutional petition citing international law and human rights conventions as well as Uganda’s own constitution.

Two months ago, five judges, headed by the deputy chief justice, considered the petition but refused to deal with it.

The petition said the public was affected by the non-provision of crucial resources for women giving birth in government health facilities, as well as by the “unethical behaviour” of doctors and nurses towards expectant mothers, and asked that the situation be declared unconstitutional.

Backed by more than 50 non-government organisations, the petition included a list of constitutional sections infringed by the inadequate provision of proper health services for women giving birth.

There’s no shortage of clauses to which you could appeal in making such a petition – the right to life, for one – plus there’s a section saying that anyone who alleges that an “act or omission by any person or authority is inconsistent with or in contravention” of the constitution, may “petition the constitutional court for a declaration to that effect and for redress where appropriate”.

When the case was argued, however, the state attorney said the petition should be rejected on the basis of the “political question” doctrine, without even getting to the merits of the issues involved.

If the court agreed to deal with the petition, she argued, it would be “interfering with political discretion by which law is a preserve of the executive and the legislature”.

The constitutional court agreed: it might be true that not enough resources had been allocated to maternal health care services, but the court “has no power to determine or enforce its jurisdiction on matters that require analysis of the health sector government policies, (or) it will be substituting its discretion for that of the executive”.

The judge said a different approach should have been adopted with an application to the high court for redress – suing the state, in other words.

After the court threw out the case, human rights activists said it had at least “raised awareness” of the problem. Perhaps, but not where it matters most.

A month afterwards, Hajara Katusabe, 24, died in labour when the midwife at a health centre refused to emerge to help her because she “had a heavy workload” and was tired.

After Katusabe died, members of the local community are reported to have stormed the health centre, threatening to lynch the midwife.

She was rescued by riot police, but has since been charged with negligence.

Now those behind the original petition have appealed to Uganda’s highest tribunal, the supreme court. Lobbyists say if they lose here, too, they will approach the African court on human and people’s rights.

Perhaps under Ugandan jurisprudence the constitutional court was indeed correct – and it’s not the apex court on such matters as in SA. The supreme court might rule differently.

But reading the judgment made me pause: suppose

our Constitutional Court had refused to rule in the Treatment Action Campaign case, to name just one.

Imagine that instead of saying that it was unreasonable for the government to provide life-sustaining medicine at just a few pilot sites instead of being widely available, the court had said it could not intervene in policy matters.

How many people, alive now, would have died?

When it comes to socio-economic and environmental rights, our Constitutional Court is crucial to ensuring that the state carries out its duty, that these rights are not neglected and that the poorest or most vulnerable, often without the political clout that would ensure attention from a ruling party, also benefit from the promises of the constitution.

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/limp-courts-have-potential-to-undermine-human-rights-1.1382060#.UFM2mbIgqot

Posted on Categories Featured 315 Comments on Indian patent rules infuriate Big Pharma

Indian patent rules infuriate Big Pharma

A CLASH over India’s drug market was inevitable. Foreign drugmakers, facing paltry growth in the West, are eyeing India hungrily. Rising incomes and rates of chronic disease may push sales from $12 billion in 2010 to $74 billion in 2020, according to PwC, a consultancy. But tapping this growth means having patents that protect intellectual property. India is home to a thriving generics industry, whose copycat drugs make up about 90% of the market. India’s drug-patent laws are just seven years old. Its government is keen to encourage generics and keep prices down.

Now India’s patent rules are being put to the test. Novartis, a Swiss giant, is challenging India for denying a patent for Glivec, its blockbuster cancer drug. The fight is due to reach India’s Supreme Court on September 11th. Bayer, a German drugmaker, has a different problem: in March India’s patent controller ordered it to license a drug to a local manufacturer. Its appeal had its first hearing on September 3rd. The cases will help decide how quickly India’s 1.2 billion people get new drugs, and at what price.

India’s drug industry has a unique history. For more than 30 years, the country did not recognise pharmaceutical patents. Domestic firms became masters at copying medicine and making it cheaply. After joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995, India had to change its patent policy. But its new system, in place since 2005, includes special protections for both patients and generic manufacturers.

For example, the law bars patents of minor changes to existing drugs, a practice known as “evergreening”. Drug reformulations are often used to extend patents elsewhere; they get no protection in India. The country also has broad criteria for “compulsory licensing”. A WTO agreement allows countries, in some instances, to force a firm to license a patented drug to a generic company. India’s rules give officials broad powers to do this.

Now both provisions are under attack. In 2006 India denied Novartis a patent for Glivec, calling it an unpatentable modification of an existing substance, imatinib. Novartis insists this is nonsense. Only by making it in salt form, imatinib mesylate, did Novartis have a proper drug: the body absorbed the medicine 30% more easily.

Paul Herrling, the chair of Novartis’s Institute for Tropical Diseases, says the case is a test of what is patentable in India. “We are being accused of evergreening,” he says. “Having that concept applied to Glivec, which was one of the major breakthroughs in cancer therapies, is completely ridiculous.” Michelle Childs of Médecins Sans Frontières, a non-profit, retorts that drug firms such as Novartis should not win patents for minor improvements. This would keep generics off the market, driving up prices.

Bayer’s case is equally heated. In 2008 it won an Indian patent for Nexavar, a kidney-cancer drug. But in March India’s patent controller issued the country’s first compulsory licence. He wrote that Bayer had not made Nexavar “reasonably affordable” (Bayer offered it for a whopping $5,000 a month), that the company failed to provide enough of the drug and, in a protectionist nod, reckoned that importing Nexavar further hurt Bayer’s case. The controller ordered an Indian company, Natco, to sell Nexavar for one-thirtieth of Bayer’s price. Bayer will receive a 6% royalty. Meanwhile Bayer is fending off another competitor, Cipla, which has sold generic Nexavar in India for years.

As these cases drag on, India’s government is considering other ways to get cheaper medicine. It plans to offer free generics in public hospitals, which would drive up sales of very cheap copies. It may also set price controls for patented drugs. However, generic companies are not immune to regulatory pressure. Ministers plan to expand price controls for a broader swathe of generics.

Cost versus innovation

 

 

“We realise the industry will take a hit,” explains D.G. Shah of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, which represents big generic companies. “We’re trying to find a solution so that the government’s concerns on access and affordability are addressed without threatening the long-term growth of the pharmaceutical industry.” Nice work, if they can get it.

Source: http://www.economist.com/node/21562226

Posted on Categories Featured 167 Comments on Health workers on silent strike

Health workers on silent strike

WRITTEN BY PATIENCE AKUMU

Overworked and underpaid, health workers in Uganda have for decades fought hard to persuade the government to improve their working conditions. However, many of them have over the years given up the struggle, opting to join other professions and sectors, or staying in the medical field but giving half-hearted service, Workers MP Dr Sam Lyomoki has observed.

Speaking at a press conference organised by the Uganda National Health Consumers Organisation (UNHCO), Lyomoki said although the government may think it has beaten health workers into submission, this “go-slow” strike is even more dangerous than overt strikes, as uncommitted health workers can have a devastating effect.

UNHCO is a non-governmental organisation working to put pressure on Parliament not to pass the 2012/2013 health budget. Uganda is yet to meet the 15 per cent budget allocation required by the Abuja Declaration to which Uganda is signatory.

With a ratio of 1.8 health workers per 1,000 people, Uganda is also far below the World Health Organisation standard of at least 2.5 health workers per 1,000 people.
And yet, this financial year, the government slapped a ban on recruitment of health workers.

The government has also failed to retain health workers and many of them are seeking greener pastures outside the country. Health workers in Uganda remain the least paid in the East African region.

And with economic integration, Uganda is likely to lose even more health workers. Now, civil society has teamed up with parliamentarians and leaders in the health sector to demand that government recruits over 5,000 health workers this financial year, 2012/2013, if it is to meet the national health targets.

In particular, MPs have vowed not to pass the health budget until the 7.6 per cent allocation to the health sector is raised. This percentage is even lower than the 9.8 per cent of the previous financial year.

“We are not going to pass the budget because it affects us,” said Rosemary Nyakikongoro, vice chairperson of the Uganda Women Parliamentary Association.
Dr Margaret Mungherera, a consultant with the Uganda Medical Workers Association, says health workers “have fought this battle for too long.”

“As the highest-paid doctor, I receive Shs 1.9m after taxes,” she said. “There is too much money spent on newspapers, entertainment and ‘travel outward’ — I wonder what that is,” Dr Mungherera said.

She said the solution to the health sector crisis is not putting up new structures and buying more medical equipment, but utilising the already existing ones. This, she said, can only be done by recruiting proper personnel.

Source: http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20820:-health-workers-on-silent-strike&catid=34:news&Itemid=114

Posted on Categories Featured 316 Comments on Court rules for Cipla against Roche in patent case

Court rules for Cipla against Roche in patent case

MUMBAI: A court has ruled in favour of local drugmaker Cipla in a patent infringement case filed by Switzerland’s Roche Holding AG over Cipla’s cancer drug Erlocip, a senior executive of the Indian company said.

The Delhi High Court made the ruling a week before India’s Supreme Court is due to begin hearing a patent plea by another Swiss drugmaker, Novartis AG, over its cancer drug Glivec. That case is expected to set a precedent for the Indian drug market, where major western companies are fighting to protect their intellectual property.

“The court judgement says we have not infringed any patent,” S. Radhakrishnan, a director on Cipla’s board, told Reuters late on Friday after the Delhi High Court’s ruling.

Roche accuses Cipla of infringing its patent on cancer drug Tarceva, which Cipla sells under the brand name Erlocip.

Roche could not immediately be reached for comment. The company has the option to challenge the judgement in India’s Supreme Court.

The ruling comes nearly four years after the court rejected Roche’s attempt to stop Cipla from selling Erlocip in India.

The court, however, said that Roche’s patent over Tarceva is valid in India, media reports said.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/healthcare/biotech/pharmaceuticals/court-rules-for-cipla-against-roche-in-patent-case/articleshow/16302523.cms

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