Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report- Wed, 14 Mar 2001
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DRUG ACCESS
1. South Africa Will Not Declare AIDS National Emergency
The South African government announced yesterday that it will not de-
clare HIV/AIDS a national emergency, a move that under World Trade
Organization rules would have allowed the country to import generic
drugs "regardless of objections from drug firms claiming abuse of
patent rights," Reuters reports (Reuters, 3/13).
South African President Thabo Mbeki in Parliament today called the
move "not necessary." Speaking in response to a question posed by op-
position leader Tony Leon, Mbeki said, "Declaring a national emer-
gency for the simple reason of accessing any drug sends a signal that
tends to narrow the response to AIDS to the issue of one particular
set of drugs" (Lovell, Reuters, 3/14). He added that the move would
have "other complex consequences for the country, which are undesir-
able, especially where there are other ways to achieve the same ob-
jective -- that is obtaining affordable access to all medicines"
(Cohen, Associated Press, 3/14).
The decision "commits" the government to fight a lawsuit brought by
39 pharmaceutical companies, represented by the Pharmaceutical Manu-
facturers Association of South Africa, that seeks to block the Medi-
cines Control Act that would allow the government to import or manu-
facture cheaper generic AIDS drugs. The drug companies argue that the
law violates international trade law and infringes on their patent
protections. The case has been postponed until April 18 to allow AIDS
advocates and the drug companies time to prepare testimony. "(Calls
for an emergency) seem calculated to divert attention from the gov-
ernment's defense, through the courts, of our people's basic right to
affordable drugs," Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said yes-
terday (Reuters, 3/13).
Mbeki dismissed arguments that the government's refusal to declare a
state of emergency indicated a lack of government commitment to
fighting the disease. "I see no reason not to rely on the comprehen-
sive legislation approved by this house and now before the courts.
... There is no basis for asserting that the government is not taking
this seriously" (Reuters, 3/14).
Leon argued, "Last year an estimated 250,000 South Africans died of
AIDS. It is estimated that more than four million South Africans are
sick or dying of AIDS at the moment and if that isn't an emergency,
it is difficult to know what is" (Associated Press, 3/14).
2. Newsweek Investigates Who 'Pays for AIDS'
"Big Pharma has a big problem," Newsweek/MSNBC.com reports in its
online March 19 issue, referring to growing concerns that the pharma-
ceutical industry is more interested in turning a profit than in sup-
plying its much-needed HIV medicines to developing countries. As drug
firms developed better -- and more expensive -- antiretroviral medi-
cations over the last decade, the developing world, home to 95% of
the world's HIV cases, was "shut out" (Power, Newsweek/MSNBC.com,
3/19). Only a "tiny minority" of HIV-positive Africans are able to
pay for private AIDS therapy, and "even fewer get it for free," but
"those numbers are jumping as the prices for trademarked retroviral
drugs collapse" (Masland, Newsweek/MSNBC.com, 3/19).
The pharmaceutical industry has been responding to increasing opposi-
tion to the high cost of AIDS drugs by significantly reducing prices
in Africa and other poor regions, despite its worries that "the poor
don't have enough money to afford even cheap drugs." In an address to
the entire company, GlaxoSmithKline CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier said, "I
don't want to be the CEO of a company that only caters to the rich.
... I want those medicines in the hands of many more people who need
them." GSK, holder of the "largest arsenal of AIDS drugs," is strug-
gling to devise a business model that will permit the firm to in-
crease drug access to the poor and sick, while concurrently yielding
a profit and ensuring the investment of millions in research and de-
velopment, Garnier said.
But the drug industry faces considerable challenges, including the
fact that many developing nations do not have the physicians needed
to administer the complicated drug regimes and fears that discounted
drugs will "make their way back to higher-priced markets through back
channels," with Westerners also demanding lower prices. "The devel-
oped world must be willing to pay reasonable prices for medicines in
order to cover costs for developing countries. Essentially we must be
allowed to generate revenue for R&D in Europe, the United States and
Japan, while transferring the benefit of this research, basically for
free, to the developing world," Garnier wrote to European Commission
President Romano Prodi last fall. Drug companies argue that the cur-
rent protests against them "cloud the core issue: a lack of aid from
the North to buy drugs."