Companies To Allow Generic HIV/AIDS Drugs In South Africa
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Source: U.N.Wire
http://www.unwire.org/UNWire/20031210/449_11182.asp
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
Following an out-of-court settlement with South African's Treat-
ment Action Campaign, pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline
and Boehringer Ingelheim agreed today to permit large-scale
manufacture of generic versions of their patented HIV/AIDS drugs
for the country.
The drug makers said they would grant more licenses to generic
firms to produce and import antiretroviral drugs, and would
charge no more than a 5 percent royalty fee on the sales of
those drugs in South Africa, where an estimated 5.3 million peo-
ple have HIV/AIDS.
In October, South Africa's Competition Commission alleged the
firms were guilty of anti-competitive behavior over the sale of
antiretrovirals and recommended they be fined and forced to al-
low generic drugs. Today, the regulator said it will not fine
Glaxo, and was negotiating a similar arrangement with Boe-
hringer.
The U.K.-based Glaxo has already offered a license to one South
African firm, Adcock-Ranbaxy, and extended an existing license
to another local drugmaker. It is also considering two other
possible licenses, a spokesman said. Boehringer will reportedly
grant three licenses for the production and import of nevirap-
ine, which is used to prevent HIV transmission from mothers to
children (Reuters, Dec. 10).
In related news, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has reduced profits for
many South African businesses, according to a study by the South
African Coalition on HIV and AIDS published today.
"Approximately a third of the companies surveyed reported that
HIV/AIDS has already had a negative impact on profits, while
more than half expect an adverse impact on profitability in five
years' time," said agency spokesman Leighton McDonald.
Of the more than 1,000 company leaders interviewed over the past
two months, 9 percent reported a significant impact on overall
business and 43 percent said they expected a major impact in the
next five years. About 30 percent had seen higher labor turn-
over, and more than 20 percent had incurred recruitment and
training costs due to the disease.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic had a smaller impact on the demand side of
the economy, however, with less than 10 percent of business
leaders reporting reductions in their sales.
One major concern, according to McDonald, is that there has been
little response to the epidemic among businesses. "Only a quar-
ter of all the firms surveyed have implemented a formal HIV/AIDS
policy," he said (Agence France-Presse, Dec. 10).