Reported by Catherine Tembo:
Community Health Rights Advocacy (CHERA) and KELIN Kenya have launched the Solidarity Project, led by the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC).
The project aims to identify intellectual property barriers in Malawi’s health sector through a market intelligence study.
CHERA Executive Director Aniz Mitha emphasized the need for advocacy to remove intellectual property rights on medicines, making them affordable and accessible.
“The main reason for the project is to make medicines affordable and available, intellectual property makes medicines expensive, especially in low-income countries like Malawi.” Mitha said.
Gift Trapence, Chairperson of Civil Society Advocacy Forum (CISAF), highlighted the study’s significance in addressing procurement challenges.
“It’s crucial to identify bottlenecks in accessing medicines, preliminary findings show data keeping is a major challenge.” He said.
Dr. Rapson Kachala from the Ministry of Health noted the government’s efforts in capacity building for pharmacy personnel.
“We need to be accountable in procurement and records keeping to impress donors,” Said Kachala.
The project is being implemented in Senegal, Tunisia, Malawi, and Uganda.
