THE full-page advertisements inserted in South African newspapers (including the Mail & Guardian) by the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association over the last week should be recognised for what they are: a crude attempt to protect vested interests of an industry, the commitment of which to the public welfare is questionable to say the least. Headlined “Health Warning” and carrying a photograph of a baby in distress, the advertisements suggest that, if Minister of Health Dr Nkosazana Zuma presses ahead with her reform of drug controls, “it could kill you”.
The focus of attack by the association is on one limited aspect of the government’s legislative changes – its failure to subject “parallel imports” of generic drugs to the supervision of the Medicines Control Council. But the reforms proposed by Zuma go much further than this issue, as does the hostility of the drug companies.
The industry is long overdue for reform in South Africa. For too long the pharmaceutical companies have been ripping off the private sector; their manipulation of dispensing doctors by such devices as bonuses and sampling has bordered on corruption and the price differentials exacted by the multinationals around the world point to cynical profiteering.
The disregard of the drugs companies for the welfare of the public has been notorious since at least the days of the thalidomide scandal.
Telling evidence that their preoccupation with profit continues to warp principle is provided by the recent Synthroid scandal in America – in which it emerged that pharmaceutical giants had suppressed research showing that an expensive thyroid drug was no better than cheaper generic versions.
By dragging foreign governments, including the United States and Britain, into the South African drugs controversy – trying to shift the debate to issues of intellectual property rights – the multinationals are seen to be acting as corporate states. When such states challenge our national state in its attempts to protect its people in such a fundamental area as public health, they are in danger of striking at our sovereignty.
Zuma has temporarily withdrawn the pharmaceutical Bills, presumably to make adjustments such as that needed to mend fences with the Medicines Control Council.
It is to be hoped that she will soon return to the fray with the full backing of the Cabinet and her determination in no way diminished by the shabby propaganda efforts of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association.