[Pharm-policy] AIDS Drugs in Africa: If Cedes to When

[love@cptech.org]

This is Sheryl Stolberg's NYT piece from today's paper.  Relies quite a
bit on big pharma sources.  Does quote Steve Schondelmeyer, but none of
the activists working on the campaign, and no quotes from the generic
suppliers.  Uwe Reinhardt suggests the drug companies get the World bank
to stop Africa companies from using generics, apparently even in
countries where there are not patents.    Jamie

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/10/health/10AIDS.html

March 10, 2001 

NEWS ANALYSIS

AIDS Drugs in Africa: If Cedes to When

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

  
 
WASHINGTON, March 9 — This week, the unthinkable happened in Africa: the
world's biggest pharmaceutical companies were forced into a painful
negotiation over patent rights and the price of AIDS medicines.
Suddenly, the question is no longer whether Africans will get
life-saving drug cocktails, but how.

That question lacks a simple answer; merely slashing prices will not
automatically get drugs to patients. Many African nations are too poor
to afford the medicines, even at rock-bottom prices, and some lack the
infrastructure to deliver the pills and educate patients about how to
use them.

Still, with the international spotlight now shining on the millions of
Africans — many of them babies — dying for lack of drugs routinely
available in the United States, world health officials, patient
advocates and the manufacturers themselves say the situation can no
longer be ignored.

"I think, really, things are changing," said Awa-Marie Coll- Seck, head
of research and policy for Unaids, the United Nations agency fighting
the disease. "Before, nobody was complaining. It was as if this were
normal. People are now putting this issue on the table."

Over the past few days, several developments have pushed the issue onto
the table.

In South Africa, 39 foreign drug companies went to court to challenge a
law that would allow the country to buy cheap, generic substitutes for
patented AIDS drugs — as thousands of protesters marched in the streets
demanding drug price cuts.

Cipla, an Indian manufacturer of generic medicines, asked the South
African government for permission to sell inexpensive knockoff versions
of 8 of the 15 anti-H.I.V. drugs that, in varying combinations, are used
in the cocktails. Cipla has said it could offer an AIDS regimen, which
typically consists of three drugs, for $600 per year per patient — a
small fraction of the $10,000 to $15,000 that Americans pay.

And at the same time, the pharmaceutical giant Merck, which makes two of
the most widely used AIDS medicines, announced that it would offer them
to a number of countries at cost: $600 per patient per year for the
protease inhibitor Crixivan, and $500 per patient per year for another
anti retroviral, Sustiva, marketed overseas as Stocrin.

    [snip]