Compulsory Licensing 1 and 2 (AGOA vs HOPE and 1997 South Africa Medicines
Act)
KAISER DAILY HIV/AIDS REPORT
A news service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
http://report.kff.org/aidshiv/
Wednesday, July 14, 1999
POLITICS & POLICY
#1 COMPULSORY LICENSING I: HOUSE TO VOTE FRIDAY ON AFRICA
TRADE BILL
House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) announced yesterday
that the House will vote Friday on an Africa trade bill, but not
the bill most strongly supported by AIDS activists. Armey said
that the House will vote on H.R.2232, the Debt Relief and
Development in Africa Act of 1999, "if Democrats are able to
provide enough votes to help Republicans pass a rule for it,"
Congress Daily reports. The bill has divided Democrats, with
"Ways and Means ranking member Charles Rangel (D-NY) pushing hard
for it, and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) promoting an
alternative plan" (Earle/Norton, CongressDaily, 7/13). That bill
is the HOPE for Africa Act (H.R. 772), which would allow African
countries to use certain trade provisions to secure cheaper AIDS
drugs and is strongly supported by AIDS activists (Daily Report,
4/22). Rangel and Jackson met to discuss the issue last weekend
and "parted on good terms." The Democratic Caucus will discuss
the issue on Wednesday (Earle/Norton, Congress Daily, 7/13).
#6 COMPULSORY LICENSING II: ARE GORE, DRUG COMPANIES TEAMING
UP AGAINST SOUTH AFRICA?
In Sunday's Washington Times, London-based columnist Gwynne
Dyer discusses what she calls Vice President Gore's "complicity
with the U.S. pharmaceutical industry's campaign to crush South
Africa's attempt to break out of the global-pricing system -- a
system guaranteeing that most South African AIDS victims will die
quickly and without access to the drugs that could save them."
The drug companies, she explains, separate the globe into zones
based upon what an average customer in the middle class can pay.
Thus, an American patient pays several times more than a Polish
patient, who pays more than an Indian patient. But in "order for
this profit-maximizing strategy to work, the drug companies must
ensure that the drugs do not pass from one zone to another," as
South Africa tried to do with its 1997 Medicines Act. While the
country can manufacture the drugs under international law, it can
only do so under a license that "compels it to charge close to
First World prices," due to the skewed income average created by
wealthy South Africans. Ironically, though, most South Africans
"have an annual income that fits the Indian profile, so why
shouldn't it import its anti-AIDS drugs from there?" For his
part, Dyer writes, Gore "receives notably fewer campaign
contributions from South African AIDS victims than he does from
American drug companies." She concludes: "With any luck, he
will lose this fight. And, to be fair, he won't mind a bit. His
heart is in the right place, but he dares not put his mouth
there" (Dwyer, Washington Times, 7/11).
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The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report is published for The Henry J.
Kaiser Family Foundation by National Journal Group Inc.
Copyright 1999 by National Journal Group Inc., 1501 M St., N.W.,
Washington, DC 20005. All rights reserved.
Phone: 202-672-5990, Fax: 202-672-5767
E-mail: report@kff.org
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Patricia Miller
EDITOR: Amy Paulson
STAFF WRITERS: Allison Blanks, Jeff Dufour, Melissa Keefe,
Charmaine Marosi