TITLE: Landmark South Africa Case On Drug Policy Begins

AUTHOR:

PUB: UN Wire

DATE: March 5, 2001

A landmark lawsuit launched by almost every major drug manufacturer in the world against the South African government began today in Pretoria but adjourned shortly after it started due to repeated power failures (Johannesburg Mail & Guardian, 5 Mar). More than 40 drug companies are asking the Pretoria High Court to invalidate a South African law allowing the government to import or produce less costly generic versions of patented drugs, a challenge that has significant ramifications for the country's population of HIV/AIDS patients (Karen MacGregor, London Independent, 5 Mar). South Africa has the world's largest population of HIV-infected people, totaling 4.2 million (UN Wire, 27 June 2000). Oxfam and Medecins Sans Frontieres yesterday denounced the "callousness and bullying" of the pharmaceutical giants in a joint statement and warned of worldwide demonstrations against the move. They said many lives could be saved if people had access to affordable medicines and accused the companies of defending their patents without considering the value of human life. "Five thousand sick South Africans will be alive at the beginning of the weeklong hearing and dead by the end of it," said Oxfam's Phil Bloomer. "Twelve thousand people will have become infected with the HIV virus during the same week, 1,400 of them babies." The groups support 1997 South African legislation that allows the government to provide public sector patients with cheaper drugs, chiefly by circumventing patents. So far the country has not been able to use the laws because of legal challenges from drug firms. Drug giants charge that circumventing patents disrupts research and development of new medicines (MacGregor, London Independent, 5 Mar). "We are not against patents, but it is absurd to apply the same rules and duration of patent protection in poor countries as in rich ones," said Kevin Watkins, senior policy adviser for Oxfam. "Governments have a clear obligation to put the health of their citizens before the profit margins of patent holders" (Tim Butcher, London Telegraph, 5 Mar). Mirryena Deeb, head of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of South Africa, which is a party in the lawsuit, says the case has little to do with AIDS and is not about "patents versus patients." "This fight is about broad powers, arbitrary powers and a law that we still don't know what it means," she said. Under the law, the health minister would have authority to invalidate the patents of any medicine, thereby ruining company profits and efforts to recoup their costs for developing the drugs, she said (Associated Press/Times of India, 5 Mar). Deeb added, "We believe quite firmly and we state quite categorically that what has been absent and what holds back treatment to South Africans living with HIV is a lack of political commitment" (John Murphy, Baltimore Sun, 5 Mar). The South African government, however, says the industry is overreacting and the health minister would invoke the law only in times of crisis, such as now. "The intention of this act is simply to ensure that South Africa meets its constitutional obligation to provide health care to all South Africans," said Ayanti Ntsaluba, director general of South Africa's Health Ministry (AP/Times of India). The government says it cannot afford the drugs the country urgently needs to combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said she is confident the government will win the case (BBC Online, 5 Mar). "We have to win," she said (Johannesburg Mail & Guardian, 5 Mar). Agence France-Presse reports that this court case could affect millions of AIDS patients in developing nations (AFP/Johannesburg Mail & Guardian, 5 Mar). The trial is scheduled to run through 13 March (Baltimore Sun). Who Supports South Africa's Drug Policy In a statement released Friday, the World Health Organization said it strongly supports the 1996 South African National Drug Policy as well as "the intent of the 1997 Medicines Act 90, which is to operationalize key elements of the National Drug Policy, including generic substitution, greater competition in public drug procurement, improved drug quality and more rational use of medicines" (Integrated Regional Information Networks, 2 Mar). Protests Planned Worldwide Thousands of protesters marched to Pretoria's High Court today to show support for the government (Johannesburg Mail & Guardian, 5 Mar). Marches are also planned today in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Boston and San Francisco in support of the government (Murphy, Baltimore Sun). While AIDS experts have warned that there are more issues involved with the HIV/AIDS pandemic than the price of drugs, the New York Times reports that the concept of "profiteering pharmaceutical empires has captured the world's imagination and left the drug industry playing defense" (Henri Cauvin, New York Times, 5 Mar). END top