TUESDAY, 9.30AM
AN American lawyer representing the giant US drug company Merck, warned the parliamentary health committee yesterday that it would pull out of South Africa and deny SA access to any new anti-AIDS drugs if a new medicines bill is not withdrawn.
The controversial drugs bill is designed to lower the costs of drugs by allowing parallel importing and encouraging the use of generic medicines.
US lawyer Charles Caruso said he spoke with the backing of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers when he warned that drug companies would pull out because of lack of patent protection.
Donald De Korte, representing Merck’s local operation, said the bill was a violation of the international agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property, which gives a patent owner the right to prevent the importing of parallel products by third parties.
He said he was not trying to threaten the committee, but just “trying to make you see how serious this is.”
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