GLW: Drug barons back down

[Les Schaffer <schaffer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[BOUNCE Non-member submission from
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The following article appeared in the latest issue of Green Left
Weekly (http://www.greenleft.org.au), Australia's radical newspaper.

See http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2001/445/445p26.htm

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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."