Pieces such as these make me realize the messed up situations that exist here. Laws around patents let large firms prolong their protections in multiple ways so citizens end up spending more and more over time. Even once a drug's protection runs out agreements between companies along with their focus on profits keep costs elevated in unnatural ways. One case shows a medication whose protection ended a couple years back available at lower cost abroad yet still expensive on a monthly basis in this country. High quality generic versions of certain compounds are unlikely to ever reach truly low prices in this market.
This is positive information reported by the Guardian. I didn't expect the lack of patents across Africa!