Lancet: CAPE TOWN When pharmaceutical wrangles cast a wide net

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

Thanks to Daniel Berman for forwarding this article.
Jamie

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Lancet, 15 May 1999

CAPE TOWN When pharmaceutical wrangles cast a wide net

On April 30, South African Health Minister, Nkosazana Zuma,
shifted her stance on zidovudine by giving assurances that
she would name an affordable price for the drug within 6 weeks.

Anti-AIDS activists have been at loggerheads with Zuma since she
cancelled zidovudine pilot projects at antenatal clinics, arguing
that the government could not afford the drug (see Lancet 1999; 353:
908 ).

Now, it seems the two sides have joined forces to take on
international pharmaceutical companies, urging them to drop their
prices.

The fight for affordable treatment has spread across the
Atlantic. And now US consumer groups have accused vice-president, 
Al Gore, of hypocrisy and of putting the interests of drug companies 
before the welfare of people with AIDS. As head of the 
US-South African Binational Commission, they said that Gore had 
publicly called for urgent action to fight AIDS in Africa, while 
working behind the scenes to pressure South Africa into abandoning 
trade powers that seek to widen access to cheaper generic medicines.

At issue is a section of South Africa's Medicines and Related
Substances Act, which is yet to be promulgated, and which US
officials and drug manufacturers argue violates patent rights 
needed to protect their research. The act is being challenged in the 
South Africa High Court by international pharmaceutical companies.

A US state department report sent to Congress before Gore's trip
to South Africa in February said: US government agencies had engaged
in an all out bid to "convince the South African government to
withdraw or amend the offending provisions" from the law. On May 1, 
South Africa's vice-president, Thabo Mbeki, denied being browbeaten by
his American counterpart into abandoning his government's quest for
cheaper drugs.

-- 
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
I can be reached at love@cptech.org, by telephone 202.387.8030,
by fax at 202.234.5176. CPT web page is http://www.cptech.org