OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday
THE world’s most powerful drug firms have come under a renewed deluge of criticism from Aids activists, who say the industry puts profits ahead of the lives of the 25 million Africans who live with HIV-Aids.
The attack came before the resumption of a landmark case in the Pretoria High Court, which is seen as an acid test of the developing world’s ability to secure affordable medicines by importing generic versions of patented medicines.
The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association of South Africa (PMA), which represents 39 leading drug firms, said it had taken the South African government to court to protect its patent rights which finance future medical research.
”It is vital the companies lose the case … the drug firms are engineering a gross violation of human rights in South Africa that would set a terrible precedent for other developing countries,” said Kevin Watkins, senior policy adviser with British charity Oxfam.
Oxfam said Pretoria’s inability to get access to cheaper, generic drugs would be a catastrophe for South Africa’s public health system. A court win for the drug firms, it said, would mean the next generation of medicines would be more costly.
Aid groups urged the drug firms to drop the case, which centres on the legality of the Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Act – which Pretoria says is vital to meet its constitutional duty of getting health care to its people.
Aids activist group Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), which is testifying in the trial, charged the drug firms with greed. ”The right to life, dignity and health supersedes the right of drug companies to profiteer. In the end it is about greed on the one hand and the right to life on the other,” said TAC head Zackie Achmat.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), one of several international groups helping South Africa to fight the PMA, said generic drugs were available for about a quarter of the price charged by the major pharmaceutical companies.
PMA chief Mirryena Deeb said many of the companies backing the court action had already offered free or cheap access to the drugs needed to fight the Aids epidemic.
”The government has failed even to call for a single bid for meaningful quantities of Aids drugs in the state tendering system,” she said. – Reuters
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