Lisa Richwine: AIDS Protesters Vow To Follow Gore Campaign Trail

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

forwarded as a fair use.  jl
-----------------
Saturday June 19 12:42 AM ET 

AIDS Protesters Vow To Follow Gore Campaign Trail

By Lisa Richwine

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AIDS activists vowed Friday to dog Vice President
Al Gore at every campaign stop unless he promises to support a South
African law designed to bring patients cheaper medicines.

Protesters disrupted Gore's speech Wednesday announcing he was running
for president and confronted him at two campaign events in New Hampshire
and on Wall Street Thursday.

``We will continue to draw attention to Gore's actions around South
Africa and his unconscionable greed until we see signs that policies are
changing,'' Asia Russell of ACT-UP Philadelphia said Friday.

Joined by Ralph Nader-led consumer groups, AIDS activists charge that
Gore is working on behalf of U.S. drug companies to keep South Africa
from exercising trade powers that could make cheaper drugs available to
poor AIDS victims.

A Gore spokesman disputed their charges, saying the vice president had
championed the fight against AIDS in Africa and would support measures
that did not violate international rules on patent protection.

``The vice president believes we need to pursue all available means to
deliver high-quality affordable medicines to those who need them, and we
need to do this within the legal limits established'' by the World Trade
Organization.

Portions of the South African Medicines Act allow officials to order
cheaper, generic copies of medications, even while they are still under
patent, by granting ``compulsory licenses'' to local manufacturers.

The law, now tied up by a court challenge, would also let South Africa
import cheaper drugs from a third party, a practice known as parallel
importing.

Consumer and AIDS groups say both moves are legal under WTO rules and
could bring relief to some of the three million South Africans with HIV
or AIDS.

The U.S. pharmaceutical industry, however, says the law is written so
vaguely that it could violate international patent rights, a key to
securing drug companies' revenue to invest in future drug research.

Gore discussed the law with South Africa's new president Thabo Mbeki at
meetings last August and February when Mbeki was deputy president.

At a later news conference, Gore sported an AIDS ribbon made with
African beads given to him by Mbeki, a symbol of the leaders' shared
bond in fighting AIDS, the Gore spokesman said.

``It is hard to believe that the deputy president would have made the
vice president a gift of an AIDS ribbon done in African bead work if
there had been anything but a partnership between them on AIDS,'' the
spokesman said.

AIDS activists view Gore's role differently. During his announcement
speech in Carthage, Tenn., Wednesday, 15 protesters chanted ``Gore is
killing Africans, AIDS drugs now.''

At a similar disruption at a New Hampshire college Thursday, Gore
responded by saying ``the crisis of AIDS in Africa is one that should
command the attention of people in the United States and around the
world.''

Activists said they were encouraged that their concerns were beginning
to be heard. They have secured a meeting next week with White House AIDS
policy adviser Sandra Thurman, and last week won an audience before the
President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.

``We want the administration to come forward and say it's not going to
oppose attempts by developing countries to do parallel imports or
compulsory licensing,'' said AIDS activist Eric Sawyer. ``That's what
we're pushing for, and we won't give up until our government agrees.'' 

-- 
James Love
Consumer Project on Technology
http://www.cptech.org
love@cptech.org
202.387.8030; fax 202.234.5176