[Pharm-policy] Zackie Achmat hands himself over to police

[James Love]

-------------
Subject: Zackie Achmat hands himself over to police 
   Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 14:02:15 -0400 (EDT)
   From: Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>
     To:  Multiple recipients of list <healthgap@CritPath.Org>

Independent Newspapers

Aids activist hands himself over to police

October 20 2000 at 12:45PM

Aids activist Zackie Achmat on Friday handed himself
in to Bellville police in Cape Town after a charge was
laid against him by the Medicines Control Council for
illegally smuggling generic medicine into the country.


Achmat, the leader of Aids lobby group, the Treatment
Action Campaign (TAC), announced earlier this week
that he had imported Biozole, a generic version of
Fluconazole, which is used to treat cryptococcal
meningitis.

Achmat told the South African Press Association on
Friday he had decided to co-operate with the
authorities.

However, he refused to hand over the entire batch of 5
000 tablets to the police.

He handed over one sample box of the drug
Instead, he handed over one sample box of the drug, a
video explaining his motives and the receipt for the
drugs bought in Thailand.

Fluconazole sells for R100 in South African
pharmacies, but he paid only R1,49 for the generic
medicine

Pan Africanist Congress MP Patricia de Lille,
representatives of national and provincial
non-governmental organisations, as well as about 20
TAC supporters waited inside the Western Cape
detective offices in Bellville while Achmat was being
interviewed in the presence of his attorney.

It is not clear at this stage whether he will be
arrested.

Another group of supporters were not allowed access to
the building.

TAC spokespers4on Nathan Geffen said the group would
continue with its defiance campaign until cheaper
generic drugs were made available in South Africa. -
Sapa

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

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