[Pharm-policy] South African Ministers Unable to Respond to AIDS Drugs Offer

[James Love]

Forwarded to the list for Susan Finston of PhRMA. Jamie

--------
-- Subject  pls post the attached article, thanks
   Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2000 10:04:57 -0400
  From: "Susan Finston" <SFINSTON@phrma.org>
    To: <love@cptech.org>


South African Ministers Unable to Respond to AIDS
 Drugs Offer

 PRETORIA (Reuters) - Southern African health ministers said on Saturday their countries
 were not equipped to respond to an offer from leading pharmaceutical companies to cut the
 cost of anti-AIDS drugs for poor countries.

 ``Ministers wish to stress that as of now, no concrete offer or mechanism to effect such an
 offer is in place,'' a statement read by South African Health Minister Manto
 Tshabalala-Msimang said.

 Southern African nations lacked the medical equipment or staff to treat people with antiviral
 drugs to combat HIV, the AIDS virus, she told reporters at a meeting of ministers of the
 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC).

 Most of the people infected with HIV are from sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World
 Health Organisation. So far, 11 million Africans have died of the disease and 22 million are
 living with AIDS or HIV, its data shows.

                         The SADC talks were called in response to a decision last
                         month by five leading drug companies to slash the prices of
                         HIV/AIDS therapies for poor countries as part of a wider
                         UN deal to make the treatment available in developing
                         countries.

 An estimated one in 10 of South Africa's 43 million people are HIV-positive, but the
 government has refused to make the anti-AIDS drug AZT available in public clinics on cost
 grounds.

 Tshabalala-Msimang said last month that despite price cuts of up to 80 percent, anti-AIDS
 drugs were still too expensive for South Africa and buying them would prevent health
 authorities from treating patients with other diseases.

 The offer to cut the cost of the anti-AIDS drugs was extended in May by Glaxo Wellcome
 Plc , Merck & Co Inc , Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, Boehringer Ingelheim and Roche
 Holding AG.

 So far, none of the SADC countries have responded positively, with governments stressing
 that they want to negotiate for a broader package of affordable HIV/AIDS drugs.

 ``Ministers noted with strong concern that the manner in which the proposed offer was
 announced could lead to alienation of governments from their people as the public was given
 the impression that the prices of anti-retroviral drugs have been drastically reduced and are
 immediately available,'' the SADC statement said.

 SADC ministers would meet officials from other developing countries to discuss the issue on
 June 30 in Geneva, Tshabalala-Msimang said. Leading drug companies should focus on
 other medical issues troubling the region, such as malaria and tuberculosis, she noted.

 The emergence of HIV/AIDS since the 1980s as an epidemic across Africa has
 overshadowed the fight against malaria, which affects over 400 million annually and causes a
 million deaths, most of them in Africa.

 Tshabalala-Msimang said SADC ministers wanted the WHO to take part in World Trade
 Organisation (WTO) negotiations and help draft laws to safeguard compulsory licensing,
 parallel importation and freedom to outsource for public sector drugs. 

                                                           






=======================================================
James Love, Director           | http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology | mailto:love@cptech.org 
P.O. Box 19367                 | voice: 1.202.387.8030
Washington, DC 20036           | fax:   1.202.234.5176
=======================================================