The government must stop offering ”red herrings” as obstacles to a comprehensive antiretroviral treatment programme for people living with HIV/Aids, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday.
DA health spokesperson Mike Waters said in a statement there were challenges to implementing a national treatment programme, but these were not insurmountable.
”The government must stop delaying implementation with red herrings and get on with the job of saving lives,” he said.
Waters was reacting to an article in Business Report which questions comments by Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin that disagreement on how to protect intellectual property rights in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) stood in the way of South Africa producing cheap anti-Aids drugs.
According to Jonathan Berger, a senior researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Centre for Applied Studies, agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights adopted by the WTO in November 2001, and the Patents Act, gave South Africa the capacity to produce generic drugs.
Waters said the DA had submitted a private member’s bill in November 2001 to amend the Patents Act to address this issue.
”Not only can the government issue compulsory licences for the production of generic drugs, but Aspen Pharmacare has already obtained voluntary licences, the more favoured option, from three international drug companies.
”The government must now implement a global treatment programme, and the Medicines Control Council must fast track the registration of generic anti-Aids drugs,” he said. – Sapa