CLAIRE KEETON, Johannesburg | Sunday
THIS week will see the start of a landmark court bid by 39 pharmaceutical companies to stop the South African government implementing a law that will allow it to override patent rights in search of cheaper medicine for its citizens.
The list of applicants includes major multinational drug manufacturers like Glaxo Wellcome, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Boehringer Ingelheim.
Likewise the list of those gathered in Pretoria to oppose their bid and back government includes international health and welfare organisations.
Among them is the Nobel prize-winning Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF: Doctors Without Borders) who have described the case as the one that will decide what comes first – profits or the lives of the poor and sick.
“This case is about what comes first: the commercial interests of companies or people trying to stay alive,” said MSF official Ellen ‘t Hoen.
At issue is a law passed by government in 1997 that provides for parallel importation, compulsory licensing and the encouragement of the use of generic substitutes instead of brand-name drugs.
Parallel importation means government can source a brand-name drug being sold in South Africa from another country where it is sold cheaper, while compulsory licencing lets other companies copy a patent holder’s drug to produce it at a lower price.
The pharmaceutical companies say that this undermines intellectual property rights and their right to charge different prices for the same drug in different countries, something they say lets rich countries subsidise the poor.
In 1998, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association of South Africa (PMA) and the drugs companies obtained an interdict to stop the implementation of the law until a court ruled on its constitutionality.
The PMA says the act goes too far and allows the South African government to arbitrarily override patent rights.
Ayanti Ntsaluba, the director general of the health department, vowed that government would vigorously defend its law.
“[This law] goes to the heart of the ability of the South African government to meet the needs of the population,” said Ntsaluba.
Oxfam has slated the PMA’s stance as “hypocritical and cynical”.
“The pharmaceutical industry talks of improving access to medicines but blocks efforts to bring affordable drugs to people with Aids by suing the South African government,” said Oxfam’s Belinda Coombe.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a South African pressure group that lobbies for cheaper AIDS drugs, claims the outcome of the case could impact on the access of all developing countries to affordable medication. – AFP