STEVEN SWINDELLS, Pretoria | Wednesday
THE world’s mightiest drug companies are reconsidering the resumption of their court battle against a South African law allowing imports of cheap copies of their patented anti-Aids drugs.
The Business Day newspaper and the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported early on Wednesday that the 39 companies would drop the case when the court assembled at 10am.
”Options are being discussed amongst the participants,” said Mirryena Deeb, the chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association of South Africa (PMA), three hours before the case was to resume in the Pretoria High Court.
The industry’s leading firms have been castigated by Aids activists and international aid organisations for putting profits ahead of the lives of the 25 million Africans living with HIV-Aids.
Former President Nelson Mandela joined the fray on Sunday, accusing the companies of exploitation and saying they were wrong to use court action to protect their profits.
Activists backing the government against the drug makers said they had not heard confirmation that the case would be dropped, but that it would be a welcome development.
”If the companies drop the case, it will be great news,” said Ellen ‘t Hoen for Medecines Sans Frontiers.
”They have finally realised the extent of the outrage and they have started to listen. The South African government can now go on implementing its measures,” she said.
The court hearing is seen as a landmark case in the ability of developing countries to secure access to affordable and sustainable supplies of generic drugs, particularly anti-retrovirals, which are vital to combat AIDS but too costly for all but a tiny minority in the world’s poorest countries.
The PMA, which is representing the firms engaged in the legal action, met late into the evening on Tuesday to consider its approach to the case.
A representative for London-based GlaxoSmithKline said late on Tuesday that as far as he knew, the court case would proceed on Wednesday in Pretoria.
”As we’ve always said we always prefer a settlement, but as of this time the court case, as we understand it, is scheduled to go ahead tomorrow,” the representative said.
”It’s no secret that the PMA and GlaxoSmithKline have sought to reach a settlement out of court, but I think we’ve been saying that for quite some time now,” he added.
Leading drug firms such as GlaxoSmithKline and American giant Bristol-Myers Squibb were this week accused by Mandela of exploiting the Aids pandemic gripping the continent.
British charity Oxfam has blasted the firms for wanting to engineer what it calls a gross violation of human rights by denying drugs to those in desperate need.
Oxfam’s senior policy director Kevin Watkins told reporters on Tuesday that the court case was the ”Vietnam of the drug industry” and a public relations disaster in the country with the largest number of people known to be living with HIV-Aids.
The government argues that the disputed Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Act is vital to meet its constitutional duty of providing basic health care to the millions of its people denied such services under apartheid.
The PMA says patents have to be honoured to ensure that future research into the next generation of drugs can be funded.
An estimated 4,7 million South Africans live with HIV-Aids, one in nine of the population. Anti-Aids drugs are almost non-existent in the public health system despite a series of offers of discounted drugs to the South African government by leading drug firms. – Reuters
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