Despite more than twelve years having passed since the exposure of the 'PharmaGate' scandal, the pharmaceutical industry, which has aimed to slow down and weaken South Africa's intellectual property (IP) policy project, the country continues to face an urgent need for patent law reforms. These delays force citizens to pay exorbitant amounts for essential medicines.
More than twelve years ago, a R6 million lobbying plan organized by the pharmaceutical sector under 'PharmaGate' was uncovered. This IP policy was initially intended to introduce critical public health safeguards into South Africa's patent system to ensure the accessibility and affordable cost of medications for all. Although this policy was adopted eight years later, in 2022, the Patent Act itself, which regulates the drug patenting process, had not been amended, representing the next planned step toward reform.
Every year of inaction results in people paying excessively high prices for life-saving drugs that are available elsewhere at significantly lower costs. When 'PharmaGate' was revealed, students were still studying the role of law and policy in protecting public health. The eight years required by the Department of Trade, Industry and Commerce (DTIC) to finalize and adopt the national IP policy were long. However, the lack of action on the Patent Act since then forces reform advocates to question: why are we still waiting, and was the government's response to 'PharmaGate' merely a show?
In 2014, the then Minister of Health, Aaron Motsoaledi, condemned 'PharmaGate', calling it a 'genocide plan', which indicated the government's serious concern for public health issues. Nevertheless, after the DTIC adopted the current IP policy, discussions began about introducing a bill for necessary amendments to the Patent Act, but no action followed. For many years, the DTIC reported to Parliament on the progress of this bill.
During his speech during the 2022 Budget Vote, Minister Ephraim Patel outlined several 'concrete measures' that were supposed to be implemented within the year. Specifically, he pledged to submit the Patents Amendment Bill to the Cabinet by October 2022, and subsequently introduce it in Parliament. At the end of 2025, the DTIC made another promise that the bill would be presented to Parliament. However, more than six months later in 2026, there are no signs that these promises have been kept or will be kept. In this situation, the ongoing delay itself becomes a political choice with real consequences for people's access to medicine.
Over the past twelve years, South Africa has faced several public health challenges that have highlighted the tension between commercial incentives and public need, demonstrating the importance of patent reforms. These include the HIV/AIDS epidemic, unequal access to COVID-19 vaccines, and the constant struggle for affordable insulin and tuberculosis drugs, as well as cuts to funding for health programs and research initiatives, which threaten to undermine decades of public health progress.
Examples clearly show: monopolies and market power restricted access to vital medical technologies when and where they were needed most. Consider the case of Trikafta—a life-changing drug for cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease affecting the lungs, pancreas, and other organs. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc patented Trikafta but failed to register it for sale in South Africa for years, denying people access. The government did not rectify the situation, forcing a cystic fibrosis patient, Cheri Nell, to apply for a compulsory license—a legal mechanism allowing another manufacturer to produce a generic version of Trikafta without permission from Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc, thereby ensuring access to cheaper alternatives.
MSF and Treatment Action Campaign acted as amici curiae in this matter. In addition to presenting their experience in the campaign for access to medicine, they also sought to provide evidence that South Africa's socio-economic conditions demanded the availability of medicines.
Many governments have used the compulsory licensing mechanism to address drug access issues and significantly reduce their prices. For instance, after India granted a compulsory license for sorafenib tosylate, a cancer drug patented by Bayer, its price dropped by 97 percent—from over $5,500 USD per month to $175 per month.
In the Trikafta compulsory licensing case, MSF and Treatment Action Campaign served as amici curiae. However, instead of South Africa granting a compulsory license, Vertex settled the case out of court, covering the cost of the drug for no more than half of the cystic fibrosis patients in South Africa, while excluding low-income families, including those reliant on the state healthcare system, according to a New York Times report. Currently, Trikafta costs about R2.4 million per person annually, whereas the generic is available for approximately R199,000. But the generic will not appear in South Africa as long as Vertex patents are in effect, once again demonstrating how patents restrict people's access to more affordable and vital medicines.
In another example, South Africa purchased bedaquiline, a vital drug for treating drug-resistant tuberculosis, patented by Johnson & Johnson, at a price of about R5,400 per 6-month course per person. When cheaper generics became available in 2023 at a price of R2,131 per 6-month course, South Africa could not access them because it granted secondary patents to Johnson and Johnson. These secondary patents were rejected in other countries with public health-friendly laws, such as India, allowing people to access bedaquiline at an affordable price. If South Africa had applied stricter patentability criteria and allowed administrative challenges to weak patents, generic manufacturers could have entered the market sooner, and the price of bedaquiline could have dropped by approximately 40%, leading to significant savings for the public health system.
Despite these vulnerabilities exploited by the private sector to strengthen its market control and increase profits, the government has taken no action. Patent law reform is not just an abstract legal exercise; it is a public health imperative. It determines the speed at which affordable medicines become available, how responsive our healthcare system is during crises, and whether the constitutional right to health is realized in practice.
If the Patent Act is not amended, history will repeat itself: during the next public health crisis, there will be outrage over our inability to access affordable life-saving medicines while pharmaceutical companies profit. We will again appeal for concessions from international bodies like the World Trade Organization. Our parliamentarians will again complain about the slowness of patent law reforms aligned with our policies. Once again, the right of people to health will be sidelined.
Therefore, we ask: is the delay merely administrative? Or are there forces behind the scenes influencing the pace and direction of reforms? Concerns that the industry is dictating how and when political and legal reforms take place are not unfounded. 'PharmaGate' exposed coordinated efforts to slow down reforms in favor of public interests in South Africa. More than ten years later, the strongest accusation is not that such efforts existed, but that they appear to have succeeded. While there is no evidence that such actions are happening today, the prolonged uncertainty inevitably breeds speculation and anxiety. Because, ultimately, we still have a system where corporate interests continue to be protected while people cannot access vital medicines.
Our Constitution guarantees every person the right to access healthcare services. It is the government's responsibility to create and implement laws and policies that make this right a reality. Until now, the government has offered promises instead of concrete legislation. It is high time for our government to take seriously the right of the South African people to health. To do this, the government must fulfill its already made promises to introduce, pass, and implement the Patents Amendment Bill, ensuring that human lives are prioritized over corporate profit.
The social network X has introduced new guidelines to penalize accounts that use copied content from viral posts. These changes aim to redirect revenue generated by plagiarized publications to the original creators.
Nikita Bier, the network's product chief, announced the updates on the platform this Thursday, July 16. X will start employing an advanced version of Grok, the artificial intelligence developed by Elon Musk's xAI, to locate duplicated texts and videos with greater speed and accuracy.
The company claims that the new mechanism can identify stolen material three times faster and more accurately compared to the previous version. Bier clarified that the system will maintain copy recognition even if the user adds watermarks or other visual elements to the content.
Repeated use of copied content can result in the user's exclusion from the monetization program. Detection will also extend to phrases that are constantly repeated on the network, such as the cited example of 'Twitter is like the smoking area of the internet.' Recently, about 1.5 million stolen posts were identified, and X projects that the new rules will allow directing over US$1 million—equivalent to approximately R$5.5 million in direct conversion—that would previously have gone to infringing accounts.
Furthermore, X will strengthen the fight against so-called 'engagement baits,' which are posts created solely to artificially inflate a account's revenue through likes, replies, or shares. Profiles caught posting this type of message three times may be removed from the monetization program.
Bier mentioned examples of such promises, such as 'I will follow back everyone who replies to this post.' After the third infraction, the case may be forwarded to the X policy team for potential account suspension. He reported that on that day alone, about 4 thousand accounts were removed from the monetization program.
In a continuous effort to encourage the creation of original material, Bier had already signaled the intention to decrease the dissemination of recycled posts by presenting new video editing features on the platform. This is because many of the content that goes viral on X are, in fact, copies of existing material on other social networks, such as Instagram and Facebook, especially in the video segment.
In parallel, X has strengthened its blocking and bot identification mechanisms. Bier recalled that in April, the platform's security tools were able to detect and suspend, on average, 208 automated accounts per minute, as reported by TechCrunch.
Electricity is an integral part of modern life, powering residential buildings, enterprises, educational institutions, hospitals, transport systems, and digital infrastructure. Therefore, reliable energy supply is critically important for both economic growth and improving the quality of life for the population.
As Uzbekistan's economy expands, the demand for electricity also grows. This growth is driven by an increasing population, rapid urbanization, the development of new industries, and the widespread adoption of modern technologies and household appliances. To meet this growing demand, it is necessary not just to increase electricity production but to create a modern and sustainable energy system capable of supporting the country's long-term development.
Recognizing this need, Uzbekistan has initiated a comprehensive program of reforms in the energy sector. The main directions of this program include increasing generation capacity, modernizing infrastructure, attracting private investment, and accelerating the transition to renewable energy sources. The ultimate goal is to guarantee stable, efficient, and environmentally friendly electricity supply for all consumers in the country.
For many years, Uzbekistan's energy sector has faced significant pressure. As demand increased, numerous weaknesses in the existing system became apparent. During the autumn and winter period, power outages and disruptions in natural gas supply were observed in some regions, highlighting the urgent need for large-scale investment and modernization.
A significant part of the problem lay in the country's outdated infrastructure. Many power plants and electricity transmission networks were built decades ago and could no longer meet the demands of a rapidly growing economy. Simultaneously, urban expansion, the construction of new residential complexes, and industrial growth placed ever-increasing loads on the power grid, pushing existing capacity to its limits. Reliable access to energy is now considered a prerequisite for sustainable economic development, as its absence makes it harder to attract investment, expand production, create jobs, and improve living standards.
Renewable energy has become one of the fastest-growing segments of the global energy industry. Resources such as solar, wind, hydropower, and biomass offer a sustainable alternative to traditional and finite fossil fuels, the extraction of which is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive. In addition to ensuring long-term energy supply, renewables bring substantial environmental benefits. Unlike coal, oil, and natural gas, they produce minimal greenhouse gases during electricity generation, which helps improve air quality, reduce environmental pollution, and support the fight against climate change.
Renewable energy also strengthens energy security by reducing dependence on fossil fuels and forming a more diverse and resilient energy balance. A wider range of energy sources makes countries less vulnerable to fluctuations in global fuel prices or supply disruptions. Uzbekistan has made renewable energy a key element of its energy strategy. The active development of solar and wind energy projects is already increasing electricity generation while simultaneously reducing natural gas consumption and emissions. These investments help the country meet growing electricity demand, supporting both economic development and environmental sustainability.
In 2025, the global energy industry reached a historic milestone: for the first time in over a century, renewable energy sources generated more electricity than coal. This moment marks not only a major shift in the global energy balance but also an important step forward in climate action and sustainable development. According to international energy analysts, in 2025, the share of renewables accounted for 33.8% of global electricity production, while the share of coal decreased to 33%. This is the first time since 1919 that renewables surpassed coal as the world's largest source of electricity generation.
Despite this progress, fossil fuels continue to play a significant role in global electricity production, accounting for 24.4% of the total volume in 2025. Cumulatively, fossil fuels still generate more electricity worldwide than renewable sources. Nuclear energy also contributes, although its share is gradually decreasing, currently standing at about 9%. Experts note that the continuous expansion of renewable energy is accelerating the decarbonization of power supply systems worldwide.
Currently, 157 power plants operate in the country with a total installed capacity of 27,343 megawatts (MW). Although thermal power plants still account for the largest share of generating capacity, hydro, solar, and wind energy are actively expanding. Solar energy capacity has reached 3,930 MW, and wind capacity stands at 1,652 MW. Battery energy storage systems additionally provide 1,545 MW, reflecting the growing role of clean energy in Uzbekistan's power supply system.
Since the beginning of the year until June 15, Uzbekistan's power plants have generated 42.2 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity. This is 2.3 billion kWh, or 6%, more compared to the same period last year, demonstrating the expansion of the country's generation capacity amid growing demand. The strongest growth is observed in the renewable energy sector: during the same period, hydro, solar, and wind power plants produced 9.8 billion kWh, which is 23% more than last year. This underscores the increasingly important role that renewable energy plays in the national energy system.
According to experts, the expansion of renewable energy not only increases electricity generation but also reduces Uzbekistan's dependence on natural gas. In May 2026 alone, large solar and wind power plants generated over 1.231 billion kWh of electricity. This allowed for savings of approximately 328 million cubic meters of natural gas and prevented the release of about 707,000 tons of harmful emissions into the atmosphere. These figures also illustrate the environmental advantages of the country's energy transition.
The ongoing transformation of Uzbekistan's energy sector is a central element of the country's long-term development strategy. Expanding generation, constructing new facilities, and upgrading outdated infrastructure help the country cope with constantly growing demand. Concurrently, reforms aimed at attracting private investment, strengthening international partnerships, and accelerating the adoption of renewable energy are transforming the sector and opening up new opportunities for economic growth, thereby enhancing Uzbekistan's investment attractiveness.
Uzbekistan and Turkey have reached an agreement to expand the list of goods that can benefit from a preferential trade regime. This decision was made following a meeting of the Working Group of Uzbekistan and Turkey on the preferential trade agreement.
During official meetings in Uzbekistan, a Turkish delegation led by Deputy Minister of Trade Mustafa Tuzcu visited the country. The co-chairs of the meeting were Akram Aliyev, Deputy Minister of Investment, Industry and Trade of Uzbekistan, and Mustafa Tuzcu.
During discussions, both sides focused on mutually expanding the range of products covered by the conditions of preferential trade. At the conclusion of the third round of negotiations, participants reached a common understanding on the main issues.
The meeting concluded with the signing of a protocol confirming the inclusion of additional categories of goods in the list eligible for the preferential regime, taking into account the interests of both countries.
Participants emphasized that the agreements reached should contribute to further stimulating bilateral trade, increasing export and import volumes, and supporting the goal of the two states to increase trade turnover to 5 billion US dollars.
