BRITISH charity Oxfam on Wednesday called for a UN investigation into legal action by global drugs giants seeking to prevent South Africa from producing cheap generic drugs. Oxfam said that by launching last month in Pretoria a legal challenge to a 1997 law allowing South Africa to import or produce cheap generic anti-AIDS drugs, drug giants were “contributing to a gross breach of human rights.” Oxfam said it had written to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson urging the UN to launch an urgent investigation into the court case, brought by 39 pharmaceutical giants including Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline and US groups Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb. – AFP