ABSTRACT

This article describes the evolution of access-to-medicines advocacy in South Africa from AIDS to cancer activism in a biotechnology era. It discusses the ways in which cancer-focused access-tomedicines activists have advocated for intellectual policy reform to enable the universal provision of cheaper biosimilar versions of trastuzumab, a highly effective treatment. Its central argument is that this cancer-focused access-to-medicines activism must be contextualised in relation to the history of AIDS advocacy on intellectual property and access to essential drugs. Firstly, as with the AIDS activism of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) for access to anti-retroviral drugs in the late 1990s and early 2000s, contemporary cancer-focused activism has been led by individual patients affected by the excessive prices of essential medicines. Secondly, both can be characterised as having been effectively integrated into transnational access-to-medicines advocacy networks. Thirdly, both types of activism have involved the popularisation of the science around different drugs. The transnational access-to-medicines movement has demonstrated how activists based in the global North and the global South can impactfully collaborate to achieve wider treatment access. We can, therefore, read contemporary transnational access-tomedicines activism as key in pressing for both the right to enjoy the benefits of science and global health justice.

摘要

本文介绍了在生物技术时代，南非从艾滋病到药物抗癌行动的发展。它讨论了以癌症为中心的通入疗法积极分子提倡进行智力政策改革的方式，以实现普遍提供更便宜的仿制药形式的曲妥珠单抗的高效治疗。它的中心论点是，这种与癌症有关的药物可及性必须与艾滋病倡导知识产权和获得基本药物的历史联系起来。首先，与1990年代末和2000年代初期的治疗行动运动（TAC）的艾滋病行动获得抗逆转录病毒药物一样，受基本药物价格过高影响的个别患者领导着当代以癌症为中心的行动。其次，两者的特点都可以认为已经有效地融入了跨国药物获取的倡导网络。第三，两种类型的行动主义都涉及到围绕不同药物的科学普及。跨国获得药物运动表明，全球北部和南部地区的积极分子如何能够有效地协作以实现更广泛的治疗途径。因此，我们可以将当代跨国获取医学的激进主义理解为是争取享有科学利益和全球健康正义的权利的关键。跨国获得药物运动表明，全球北部和南部地区的积极分子如何能够有效地协作以实现更广泛的治疗途径。因此，我们可以将当代跨国获取医学的激进主义理解为是争取享有科学利益和全球健康正义的权利的关键。跨国获得药物运动表明，全球北部和南部地区的积极分子如何能够有效地协作以实现更广泛的治疗途径。因此，我们可以将当代跨国获取医学的激进主义理解为是争取享有科学利益和全球健康正义的权利的关键。