AIDS activists are now looking to the South African government to provide access to cheaper drug treatment for HIV infection and AIDS after 39 large pharmaceutical companies withdrew their case against the government in the Pretoria High Court last week.
The companies brought the law suit three years ago in the hope of stopping the government promulgating legislation it had passed in 1997 that was aimed, through various mechanisms, at lowering the cost of drugs to South Africans.
The suit has been portrayed as being primarily concerned with drugs for treating HIV and AIDS (mainly antiretrovirals), but this was only one aspect of a complex law. The law also dealt with generic substitution on prescriptions; the banning of certain practices between drug companies and doctors that provided incentives for doctors to prescribe certain drugs; the establishment of a pricing committee; and “section 15C,” which dealt with parallel imports of brand name drugs.
The South African government has assured the industry that it will use this section to import only brand name drugs, which are on the market in other countries at a lower price than in South Africa. It has promised to comply with its international obligations on the protection of intellectual property rights.
Activists, however, will now be gathering momentum to challenge drug patents through other legislation dealing with patents to force the issue of the compulsory licensing of generic copies of the drugs.
When the pharmaceutical companies' lawyers announced in court that they were withdrawing their case, the courtroom erupted into singing and dancing. AIDS activists, trade unionists, and many HIV positive people celebrated what was widely seen as their victory.
Their expectation of cheaper antiretroviral drugs may, however, prove premature. The health minister, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, told a press conference shortly after the court case ended that her government was coping with the HIV and AIDS epidemic adequately.
Answering questions about the provision of cheaper antiretrovirals, she gave no hint that this would be contemplated in the long or short term. She said that the drugs were still not affordable to treat the 4.7 million HIV positive people in the country and that hospitals and clinics did not have the infrastructure to cope with the support systems needed to treat HIV and AIDS. (See p 1012.)
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AP PHOTO/LORI WASELCHUCK
AIDs activists celebrate the companies” decision