[Pharm-policy] Rachel Swarns: SA to declare AIDS and emergency and issue CL

[love@cptech.org]

This is a very important news story from South Africa.  Rachel Swarns
reports that South Africa may declare AIDS a national emergency and
issue fast tract compulsory licenses.  Dr. Ayanda Ntsalubae, the head of
the SA Department of Health, apparently wrote about this in Sunday Times
of Johannesburg.  Jamie


  http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/12/health/12AFRI.html

March 12, 2001 


South Africa May Cite Crisis to Lower Cost of AIDS Drugs

By RACHEL L. SWARNS

emergency in an effort to eliminate legal obstacles to importing and
producing cheap, generic versions of patented AIDS drugs, health
officials said today.

In cases of national emergency or extreme urgency, World Trade
Organization rules allow inexpensive copies of the life-saving medicines
to be imported and produced without consent of the multinational drug
makers who hold the patents, United Nations officials say. 

Last week, an Indian company asked the government for permission to sell
cheap, generic versions of 8 of the 15 anti-H.I.V. drugs that are still
too costly for most South Africans. By declaring the disease a national
emergency, the government would be laying the groundwork for its patent
commissioner to approve such a request from the company, Cipla of
Bombay. 

The move, which would mark a change in government strategy, follows a
remarkable string of developments. Only days ago officials said they
wanted to avoid seizing patents, fearing it could unsettle potential
investors. But since then, the political landscape has shifted,
strengthening the government's hand. 

Last week, thousands of demonstrators marched to support the government
as the big drug companies challenged a law that would ease access to
cheaper medicines by undercutting existing patent protections. The drug
giant Merck slashed prices of its anti-AIDS treatments and Western
governments seemed increasingly sympathetic toward South Africa, which
has been overwhelmed by the disease.

Health officials said today that on Wednesday, President Thabo Mbeki
would discuss in Parliament the possibility of declaring a national
emergency. And advocates for those infected with the AIDS virus, who
plan to rally in Washington on Monday to champion South Africa's efforts
to get cheaper drugs, applauded the prospect as another signal that the
government is taking action after months of indecision and missteps.

South Africa has more people with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS,
than any other country. Roughly 20 percent of its adults are infected,
and only a fraction have access to the life-prolonging drug cocktails
that are readily available in the developed world but are too costly
here.

Yet for much of last year, Mr. Mbeki confounded scientists by
questioning the safety of commonly prescribed anti-AIDS drugs and the
widely accepted causal link between H.I.V., the human immunodeficiency
virus, and AIDS. For months, prominent doctors, researchers and
advocates around the world accused the president of wasting time while
people were dying.

In October, Mr. Mbeki acknowledged that his comments were hampering
efforts to curb the spread of the virus. Since then, the government has
begun offering free drugs to pregnant women to help prevent the
transmission of the AIDS virus to the newborn.

In an article published today in the Sunday Times of Johannesburg,
Ayanda Ntsaluba, a senior health official, said the president was
considering declaring AIDS a national emergency because it would be
easier to justify seizing patents for anti- AIDS drugs "in an
environment where a national emergency has been declared."

Representatives of the big drug companies say they would challenge such
a move, arguing that government has not taken advantage of offers of
free and discounted drugs by the multinationals. "There's absolutely
nothing in four years that they have done to find out how they could
legitimately acquire H.I.V. medication," said Mirryena Deeb, director of
the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of South Africa. 

But the advocates for AIDS patients and opposition politicians cheered
the possibility that the government might declare AIDS a national
emergency. 

"The country's image is changing because South Africa's policies are
changing," said Ellen `t Hoen of Doctors Without Borders, who is
coordinating the group's campaign for global access to medicine. "The
fact that the government is considering this signals a much clearer
commitment than we've seen before." 

Tony Leon, the leader of the official opposition party, the Democratic
Alliance, has pummeled Mr. Mbeki and his government for doing too little
to attack the devastating disease. Today, Mr. Leon was asking why it had
taken officials so long to consider declaring a national emergency to
allow generic drugs to be imported. In his address to Parliament this
week, Mr. Mbeki will be responding to a question on the subject posed by
Mr. Leon. "This is a narrow, defined, very precise exemption to normal
patent law which would meet exactly what we've been trying to do," Mr.
Leon said. "If AIDS doesn't qualify as a national emergency, nothing
would."