The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PMA) has agreed to meet the National Association of People Living with HIV/Aids (Napwa) to facilitate discussions between Napwa and companies manufacturing medicine for HIV/Aids, the PMA said on Tuesday.
The acting chief operating officer of the PMA, Professor J.J. van Wyk, said: ”We have faxed and e-mailed Napwa with details of our senior executives who have agreed to meet Napwa representatives so that meetings can be arranged directly with the individual companies concerned with medicines for HIV/Aids.
”The PMA is not empowered to discuss… the price, supply and distribution of medicines and cannot be involved in any discussions of this nature due to the provisions of the Companies Act.”
Seventy-eight Napwa members have been arrested since April 23 during several demonstrations at PMA headquarters in Midrand, north of Johannesburg and have appeared in court charged with malicious damage to property, trespassing and holding illegal demonstrations.
They were released pending further investigations.
Napwa, which claims some 100 000 members throughout South Africa, has been pressuring pharmaceutical companies to provide antiretroviral drugs free of charge to people living with HIV/Aids.
Napwa deputy director Thanduxolo Doro said: ”We see pharmaceutical companies as the main institution that can save our world from HIV/Aids by donating and subsidising treatment for the benefit of the poor.”
Government estimates put the number of people living with HIV/Aids in South Africa at 5,5 million.
GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world’s major drug manufacturers, announced on Sunday it would reduce the price of certain drugs by 50% to developing countries.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) said in a statement on Tuesday it was suspending its civil disobedience campaign pending the outcome of a full day meeting with the SA National Aids Council (Sanac) on May 17.
The statement said the current civil disobedience campaign was being suspended to give the government a full opportunity of proving its good faith and to demonstrate that the TAC’s campaign was about saving lives.
The executive of the TAC would meet on May 18 to approve an agenda for the Sanac meeting which would include an antiretroviral treatment programme for the public sector, the TAC’s relationship with government and Sanac, and questions Sanac may have about the TAC’s structure and finances.
Mark Heywood, TAC national secretary, said his organisation would propose that the outcome of the May 17 meeting with Sanac be immediately and formally tabled with government as urgent recommendations with a request that they be considered and confirmed within three weeks of that meeting.
The outcome must include using the legal powers of government to reduce the prices of medicines, Heywood said. – Sapa