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AIDS drug battle ends, clears way for cheaper treatment
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- A coalition of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies has withdrawn its lawsuit that threatened South Africa's ability to provide AIDS/HIV drugs to its citizens at cheap prices. South Africa has more people living with HIV or AIDS than any other country in the world -- an estimated 4.7 sufferers.
South Africa's Medicines and Related Substances Control Act allows its health ministry to import cheap copies of patented drugs used to treat Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and the virus that causes it, HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus. The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association of South Africa (PMA) and 39 international drug makers felt the law was unfair and threatened the profitability of their companies. Those corporations filed a lawsuit three years ago to prevent South Africa from importing cheap copies of their drugs or reproducing generic versions of patented drugs. Public and human rights campaigners strongly opposed the legal action and the issue became a public relations disaster for the industry. Celebrating victoryThursday, Stephanus Cilliers, the lawyer for the pharmaceutical companies, made a request of Judge Bernard Ngoepe who presides over the Pretoria High Court. "By the consent of all parties," he said, "we would simply ask your lordship to note that the application is withdrawn." As the announcement was made the public gallery in the court erupted into singing and chanting. AIDS in AfricaMore than 25 million of the 36 million people infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa, one of the world's most impoverished regions. In 2000, 2.4 million people in the region died from the effects of AIDS. "This case should never have happened," said Kevin Watkins, of the British aid group Oxfam. "We have lost three years in the fight against AIDS, but it is a great victory for the people of South Africa and for the global campaign to make drugs more affordable."
South Africa's Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said the government had not agreed to any deals in exchange for the drug industry move. "You can trust the government," she said. Profit concernsWorld Health Organization official Wilbert Pannenberg said access to affordable drugs was a "humans rights issue." But drugs companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, the world's largest supplier of HIV/AIDS medicines, U.S. firms Merck & Co and Bristol-Myers Squibb, Swiss group Roche and German group Boehringer Ingelheim, said the act threatened their business. Mirryena Deeb, Chief Executive of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association of South Africa, said: "If this type of legislation was applied to any other type of industry infringing their commercial rights, it would be regarded as a form of nationalization and they would pack up and go." Simon Cohen, a patents expert with London-based law firm Taylor Joynson Garrett, told CNN: "It is early to say what the implication of this is but it is a very unusual step. "I can't think of any similar issue concerning patents. Possibly in time of war, patents can be suspended for military reasons for a limited period. It may be that the level of the health problem in Africa is such that it is as serious." Cohen said the decision does not have much of an impact on the pharmaceutical companies' profits. "As far as the big pharmaceutical companies are concerned, they were not making considerable sales in South Africa anyway," he said, "because the drugs could not be afforded, so it is not as if they will have lost a big market."
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