E-drug: South African decision to promote access to medicines
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MSF Welcomes Decision of South African Competition Commission
to Promote Access to Medicines
Cape Town, 16 October 2003 - The international medical
humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders / Medecins Sans
Frontieres (MSF) today welcomed the South African Competition
Commission's unprecedented decision to find two multinational
pharmaceutical companies culpable of charging excessive prices on
antiretrovirals (ARVs) for the treatment of HIV and abusing their
patents in such a way that restricts access to these life-extending
medicines. MSF also congratulated the Treatment Action Campaign
(TAC) and the other complainants who filed the case against
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) one year ago
to reverse the tide of premature, predictable, and avoidable deaths of
people living with HIV/AIDS caused by the high prices of ARVs in
South Africa. More than 600 people die of HIV/AIDS each day in
South Africa.
With this decision, the Competition Commission, the South African
body empowered to arbitrate complaints about restrictive and abusive
business practices, has cleared away patent barriers to access to
medicines. This will lead to the availability of generic medicines
through compulsory licensing. Generic competition has been the
most reliable force in driving down the prices of needed medicines.
The decision is the clearest example yet of effective implementation
of the World Trade Organization's Doha Declaration on TRIPS and
Public Health.
This decision sends a clear message that price will not stand in the
way of access to antiretroviral treatment in South Africa,” said Dr.
Eric Goemaere, Head of Mission for MSF's AIDS programs in South
Africa. “If the South African government is serious about
providing ARV treatment to the half a million South Africans with
HIV/AIDS who clinically need it, they must immediately take
advantage of this decision. Even after recent announcements of
price reductions from brand-name companies, generic medicines are
the most affordable option today.
An important feature of the decision is that the Commission's
approach would not require the collaboration or consent of patent
holders'in this case GSK for AZT, 3TC, and AZT+3TC and BI for
nevirapine'to enable generic competition. Furthermore, the decision
will enable the use of fixed-dose combinations of ARVs, which are
vital for scaling up access to treatment because they are easy to take
and will facilitate adherence.
The Commission's decision provides a model for other developing
countries to protect public health and promote access to medicines
above all else.
For further information, contact Marta Darder in Cape Town at +27 82
332 9714 or Kris Torgeson in New York at +1 212 655 3764 or +1
917 913 1083.
Rachel M. Cohen
U.S. Director, Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
333 Seventh Avenue, 2nd Floor * New York, NY * 10001-5004 * USA
Tel: +1-212-655-3762
Mobile: +1-917-331-9077
Fax: +1-212-679-7016
E-mail: rachel.cohen@newyork.msf.org
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
http://www.accessmed-msf.org/
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