African people excluded from international medications
As a South African patient living with severe refractory lupus and antiphospholipid syndrome, I am deeply distressed by the lack of access to modern biologic therapies available elsewhere in the world.
While patients in the USA, UK and Europe increasingly have access to advanced lupus treatments such as Saphnelo (Anifrolumab), many African patients remain trapped in years of chronic corticosteroid treatment because these biologics are either unavailable, unaffordable, or extremely difficult to access through regulatory pathways.
The result for many patients is devastating:
* severe steroid damage
* skin atrophy
* chronic inflammation
* disability
* preventable complications
* declining quality of life
African lupus patients deserve the same opportunity to access modern medicine as patients in developed countries. No patient should suffer irreversible damage simply because of where they live.
I urge pharmaceutical companies, regulators, healthcare systems and global lupus organizations to acknowledge the growing treatment inequality facing autoimmune patients across Africa and to work toward meaningful access pathways for severe refractory disease.
This is not only a South African issue — it is a global health equity issue.








