SOUTH AFRICA: Drug barons back down

BY NORM DIXON

SOUTH AFRICA: Drug
barons back down

The South African government on April 19 won a landmark legal battle
when the international pharmaceutical cartel dropped its court action to
invalidate a 1997 law that allows imports of patented brand-name anti-HIV/AIDS
medicines from countries where they sell for less than in South Africa.

However, the victory was tempered by statements by the health minister
that the African National Congress (ANC) government will not alter its
policy of not treating AIDS sufferers with anti-retroviral drugs in the
public health system.

Less than one minute after the drug companies' lawyer rose to address
the Pretoria High Court, it became clear that the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers'
Association had succumbed to mounting international public outrage at the
companies' callous price-gouging that has resulted in millions of deaths
in the Third World. The PMA said that, after reaching an agreement with
the South African government, it would withdraw the case and pay all costs.

People in the public gallery — many of whom were supporters of the Treatment
Action Campaign (TAC), the main South African group campaigning for people
living with HIV/AIDS, as well as representatives from consumers' rights
and AIDS activist groups from around the world — erupted into freedom songs
and cheers.

“We have gained a major victory against the multinationals, this is
absolutely superb”, said the TAC's Zackie Achmat. Kevin Watkins of the
British charity Oxfam said the drug barons' back down was a “victory for
the people of South Africa and for poor people around the world”.

The drug barons decided to cut their losses after it became apparent
that their selfish legal move had generated massive worldwide sympathy
for South African and Third World AIDS sufferers. This sympathy — especially
in the West — placed tremendous political pressure on the giant Western
drug corporations to provide discounted, or even free, medicines to Africa's
estimated 25 million people with HIV.

The drug corporations were also under increasing pressure to end their
highly profitable monopoly control of the production and marketing of life-saving
medicines by allowing the Third World to manufacture or import generic
versions of anti-AIDS and other vital medicines.

The political struggle to force the South African government to provide
treatment for AIDS sufferers must now be stepped up, said AIDS activists.

“Every South African can be proud we stood firm against the most powerful
lobby in the world, the drug companies. But now another struggle begins”,
Achmat said.

“The government told the court under oath that anti-retrovirals are
effective against AIDS. The difficult job starts now to ensure our government
mobilises the resources it has to implement an appropriate treatment plan
for AIDS ... South Africa has been the good boy of the World Bank, the
IMF and the World Trade Organisation. And we're sicker and poorer than
we've ever been”, Achmat said.

The drug barons' humiliating back down has raised hopes and fanned popular
expectations in South Africa, especially among the estimated 4.7 million
South Africans living with HIV/AIDS and those leading the campaign, about
mass access to treatment.

South Africa's health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang immediately
moved to dampen expectations that the court victory would result in a change
to ANC policy.

The ANC government, led by President Thabo Mbeki, has pursued a policy
that places drastic cuts to government spending, reduced taxes on the rich
and big business, and respect for multinational corporations' “intellectual
property rights” before the needs of AIDS-sufferers.

An estimated 400,000 South Africans have died from AIDS-related diseases
since Mbeki became president and 5000 more die every week.

To justify the government's refusal to spend more on the health system
and approve the importation or local production of generic versions of
patented medicines, Mbeki has cast doubt on the link between HIV and AIDS.
He has suggested that the “toxicity” of anti-retroviral drugs is more dangerous
than AIDS-related symptoms. Mbeki appointed a controversial panel of AIDS
“experts” to advise him on policy. The panel included a number of AIDS
“dissidents” who deny the existence of AIDS.

Until February, when Mbeki finally relented to mass pressure, his government
had refused to provide anti-AIDS medications to pregnant women to prevent
mother-to-child transmission of HIV. South Africa's drug regulatory body
only approved the drug involved, nevirapine, on the eve of the court victory.
Cabinet has yet to approve the details of the program.

On March 14, Mbeki refused to declare South Africa's debilitating AIDS
epidemic a national emergency. Such a declaration would have allowed Pretoria
to immediately invoke WTO provisions that would allow it to override patents
owned by Western pharmaceutical corporations and import or manufacture
“generic” versions of essential medicines at a fraction of the price charged
for brand-name counterparts.

It appears that the agreement reached between the drug barons and Pretoria
to end the court case will ensure that South Africa continues its subservience
to the greed of the big Western pharmaceutical corporations. The joint
statement of understanding issued by the government and the drug firms
commits Pretoria to the respect of its international trade obligations.

Tshabalala-Msimang stressed that includes abiding by the provisions
of the WTO's Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
agreement that requires the South African government to respect the drug
barons' 20-year monopoly rights to produce and market essential drugs.
The ANC government also said that it would “consult” with drug manufacturers
to formulate the regulations contained in section 15c of the contested
Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Act. Mirryena Deeb,
the chief executive of the PMA), confirmed this: “We have basically laid
down a partnership [with Pretoria] to allow us to move forward.”

From GLW issue 445