The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report - Tues 3 Apr 2001
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* South Africa 'Spurned' AIDS Drug Offers, Drug Makers Say
* British Government Declares Patent Protections Must be Upheld
* German Chancellor Requests Price Cuts
* New African Foreign Policy Group Forms, Urges Bush to Make Africa a
Priority
* Students 'Pressuring' University of Minnesota to Give Up Profits
from AIDS Drug Ziagen
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South Africa 'Spurned' AIDS Drug Offers, Drug Makers Say
The pharmaceutical companies that are suing South Africa over its
1997 Medicines Control Act, which would permit the importation and
manufacture of cheaper antiretroviral drugs, say government officials
"rejected or ignored" their offers to provide cheap or free AIDS
drugs, the AP/Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports. South Africa's re-
jections of the offers counter the country's claims that it must im-
port cheaper generic versions of the drugs because it cannot afford
patented medications, drug makers argue. Pharmaceutical Manufacturers
Association of South Africa Chief Executive Mirryena Deeb was quoted
in South Africa's Sunday Independent newspaper as saying in an affi-
davit filed in the Pretoria High Court Friday, "To the extent that
prices of medicines do enter considerations, it is clear they cannot
play a significant role because the government declines to use these
products, even where they are offered for free." The association said
that antiretrovirals were unavailable in the public health system be-
cause the government had tried to manage the AIDS epidemic without
them. Deeb pointed to unanswered offers made last May by Boehringer
Ingelheim, Roche, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck and GlaxoWellcome (now
GlaxoSmithKline) to work with African governments to reduce drug
prices. In addition, the South African Health Department has not yet
responded to Bristol-Myers's offer last month to sell its Videx and
Zerit for only $1 per day per patient. "The South African government
has not yet even initiated discussions ... to procure the medicines
in question at the very substantial savings that the offers entail,"
Deeb said. But in February, South African Health Minister Manto Tsha-
balala-Msimang "accused" the companies of not disclosing the prices
they would charge. The drug firms have argued that the 1997 act "un-
dermines their patents [and] gives the health minister unfettered
power to control the import and pricing structure of medicines and is
unconstitutional" (AP/Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, 4/1).
--
British Government Declares Patent Protections Must be Upheld
The British government has "firmly" sided with the pharmaceutical in-
dustry in the ongoing debate over intellectual property rights for
AIDS drugs, the London Guardian reports. A group of British minis-
ters, including Health Minister Lord Hunt and Science Minister Lord
Sainsbury, and a coalition of executives from major drug companies
wrote in a new report that "[i]ntellectual property rights ... are
the lifeblood of the innovative pharmaceutical industry." The report,
which has been "explicitly endorsed" by British Prime Minister Tony
Blair, states that "intellectual property protection is not per se a
barrier to access to medicines and attempts to weaken it would be
counter-productive." Government and industry leaders say that while
"[t]here is much that can be done" to improve access to AIDS drugs,
both parties are "acutely aware of the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in
Africa and their responsibilities in responding to it." The "uncom-
promising stance" outlined in the report illustrates that the British
government is "publicly backing the position of the pharmaceutical
giants" even as the European Union, of which Britain is a member, is
calling on 39 drug companies to drop their lawsuit against South Af-
rica over a law that would allow the country to import or produce
cheaper generic AIDS drugs. AIDS activists expressed disappointment
over the government's position. Sophia Tickell, senior policy advisor
at Oxfam, said, "It does look as if the government is capitulating to
big business. ... It seems a backward step and out of line with a
growing number of other governments" (Boseley, Guardian, 3/31). A
copy of the report can be viewed at:
http://www.doh.gov.uk/pictf/pictf.pdf.
--
German Chancellor Requests Price Cuts
In other drug access news, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has
asked the international pharmaceutical industry to further decrease
the price of AIDS drugs for developing nations. In a letter to Rolf
Krebs, president of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical
Manufacturers Associations and vice chair of Boehringer Ingelheim
Pharma KG, Schroeder asked that drug firms work to provide "afford-
able treatment" for HIV-positive individuals in developing nations,
especially Africa and Latin America. Schroeder spokesperson Uwe-
Karsten Heye declined to give additional details on the letter. After
a meeting in Washington last Thursday, Schroeder and President Bush
said they wanted the G8 group of industrialized nations to "intensify
their efforts to ease the suffering of millions of people who are in-
fected" with HIV (Associated Press, 3/30).
--
New African Foreign Policy Group Forms, Urges Bush to Make Africa a
Priority
The Africa Policy Information Center, the American Committee on Af-
rica and the Africa Fund have merged to form Africa Action, a new
foreign policy group that is "urging" the Bush administration to put
Africa "at the top" of its foreign policy agenda, the Washington
Times reports. At the announcement of the merger, Executive Director
Salih Booker said that the AIDS epidemic and the "failure of peace-
keeping" operations have had the "most devastating consequences" in
Africa. "These vital challenges must be addressed in Africa in soli-
darity with Africans, but Washington continues to practice an inter-
national version of Jim Crow, reserving its diplomacy and resources
for its rich European cousins while ignoring its African roots at its
own peril," he said (Washington Times, 4/3).
--
Students 'Pressuring' University of Minnesota to Give Up Profits from
AIDS Drug Ziagen
The University of Minnesota is reaping more than $10 million per year
in royalties for Ziagen, an AIDS drug university researchers devel-
oped and licensed to pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, but a
group of students is trying to pressure the school to give up its
share of the profits and support the sale of the drug's generic ver-
sion in Africa, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Ziagen, ap-
proved by the FDA in 1998 and used as part of a three-drug antiretro-
viral "cocktail" to fight AIDS, generated sales of $234 million in
2000, of which the university received 5%. Graduate student Amanda
Swarr, who is spearheading the student effort to cut drug prices,
said, "I think the university and Glaxo are both benefiting dispro-
portionately from the high prices of this drug. We need to think less
about profit and more about saving millions of human lives." Inspired
by the recent student protests at Yale University that prompted Bris-
tol-Myers Squibb to permit importation of cheaper versions of the
AIDS drug stavudine in South Africa, Swarr and fellow activists are
circulating petitions around campus asking the school to "use its in-
fluence with Glaxo" to end its participation in a lawsuit against
South Africa. But the university maintains that it has "no control"
over how Ziagen is sold, and that the "criticism is misguided."
Robert Vince, a university pharmacy professor and one of the drug de-
velopers, said that all the money the school receives from drug sales
are used for research purposes. "It's a good source of money to do a
lot of good types of research, and if we didn't do these types of
things, maybe these drugs wouldn't be available," he said. Although
the university does not seek to impose price controls for Ziagen on
Glaxo, Dr. Anne-Valerie Kaninda of Doctors Without Borders argued
that "universities should definitely negotiate with the companies to
which they license the drugs, and explain to them that this is a pub-
lic health emergency. It will not undermine their profits. Most of
their profits are made in the wealthy nations, anyway." GSK spokes-
person Nancy Pekarek said that the company is trying to reduce prices
on anti-HIV medication, but Ziagen is "more complicated" because it
hasn't been approved in South Africa and bears a rare but potentially
fatal hypersensitivity reaction side effect, which could pose prob-
lems if the drug was widely released. Swarr responded that the argu-
ment is "condescending" as it "assumes African nations don't have the
know-how, somehow, to implement drug programs. I think that's not for
the drug companies to decide" (Lerner, Minneapolis Star Tribune,
4/2).
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The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report is published for kaisernetwork.org,
a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, by National
Journal Group Inc. c 2001 by National Journal Group Inc. and Kaiser
Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
--
Cecilia Snyder
mailto:csnyder@ccmc.org
--
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