OWN CORRESPONDENT, Geneva | Tuesday
THE International Red Cross has called for international support for South Africas bid to provide cheap drugs to Aids sufferers, saying humanitarian needs should prevail over commercial concerns.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies urged that access to life-saving drugs in developing countries be ensured, and called on its members to support the search for solutions.
South Africa is being sued by 39 pharmaceutical companies, which say a national plan to import and produce cheap generic anti-Aids drugs flouts global trade laws. The legal battle over whether Pretoria can import cut-price versions of generic treatments rather than the more expensive brand drugs could affect millions of people in poor countries.
The Red Cross and Red Crescent federation slammed as unacceptable a situation in which “lives are being lost because access is being denied to life-saving medicine for those living with HIV/Aids, malaria, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases.”
On Friday, an international pharmaceutical group rejected charges that drug makers are making it hard for Aids sufferers in developing countries to get expensive medicines.
The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations (IFPMA) issued a statement in which it said “its members are committed to the fight against HIV/Aids worldwide.”
The group “finds it regrettable that the South African Constitutional Case is being used to portray the pharmaceutical industry as a barrier to sustainable access to medicines when in fact the industry is a committed partner to finding solutions.”
The pharmaceutical companies were forced onto the defensive last week when the judge adjourned the trial to let a leading Aids advocacy group make its case.
“The only way to truly improve access to medicines will be to increase the national budget for Aids medicines and to have greater financial support from the governments of donor countries,” the statement said.
The drug companies say the law passed by South Africa’s parliament in 1997 violated the World Trade Organisation’s TRIPS (trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights) agreement by allowing the import and production of cheap generic drugs instead of brand-name medicines.
Implementation of the law has been blocked since 1998 by the court action.
Pharmaceutical groups backing the court action include multinational giants Boehringer-Ingelheim, Glaxo Wellcome, Merck and Roche. – AFP
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