BY NORM DIXON
The South African government on April 19 won a landmark legal battle when the international pharmaceutical cartel dropped its court action to invalidate a 1997 law that allows imports of patented brand-name anti-HIV/AIDS medicines from countries where they sell for less than in South Africa.
However, the victory was tempered by statements by the health minister that the African National Congress (ANC) government will not alter its policy of not treating AIDS sufferers with anti-retroviral drugs in the public health system.
Less than one minute after the drug companies' lawyer rose to address the Pretoria High Court, it became clear that the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association had succumbed to mounting international public outrage at the companies' callous price-gouging that has resulted in millions of deaths in the Third World. The PMA said that, after reaching an agreement with the South African government, it would withdraw the case and pay all costs.
People in the public gallery many of whom were supporters of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the main South African group campaigning for people living with HIV/AIDS, as well as representatives from consumers' rights and AIDS activist groups from around the world erupted into freedom songs and cheers.
We have gained a major victory against the multinationals, this is absolutely superb, said the TAC's Zackie Achmat. Kevin Watkins of the British charity Oxfam said the drug barons' back down was a victory for the people of South Africa and for poor people around the world.
The drug barons decided to cut their losses after it became apparent that their selfish legal move had generated massive worldwide sympathy for South African and Third World AIDS sufferers. This sympathy especially in the West placed tremendous political pressure on the giant Western drug corporations to provide discounted, or even free, medicines to Africa's estimated 25 million people with HIV.
The drug corporations were also under increasing pressure to end their highly profitable monopoly control of the production and marketing of life-saving medicines by allowing the Third World to manufacture or import generic versions of anti-AIDS and other vital medicines.
The political struggle to force the South African government to provide treatment for AIDS sufferers must now be stepped up, said AIDS activists.
Every South African can be proud we stood firm against the most powerful lobby in the world, the drug companies. But now another struggle begins, Achmat said.
The government told the court under oath that anti-retrovirals are effective against AIDS. The difficult job starts now to ensure our government mobilises the resources it has to implement an appropriate treatment plan for AIDS ... South Africa has been the good boy of the World Bank, the IMF and the World Trade Organisation. And we're sicker and poorer than we've ever been, Achmat said.
The drug barons' humiliating back down has raised hopes and fanned popular expectations in South Africa, especially among the estimated 4.7 million South Africans living with HIV/AIDS and those leading the campaign, about mass access to treatment.
South Africa's health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang immediately moved to dampen expectations that the court victory would result in a change to ANC policy.
The ANC government, led by President Thabo Mbeki, has pursued a policy that places drastic cuts to government spending, reduced taxes on the rich and big business, and respect for multinational corporations' intellectual property rights before the needs of AIDS-sufferers.
An estimated 400,000 South Africans have died from AIDS-related diseases since Mbeki became president and 5000 more die every week.
To justify the government's refusal to spend more on the health system and approve the importation or local production of generic versions of patented medicines, Mbeki has cast doubt on the link between HIV and AIDS. He has suggested that the toxicity of anti-retroviral drugs is more dangerous than AIDS-related symptoms. Mbeki appointed a controversial panel of AIDS experts to advise him on policy. The panel included a number of AIDS dissidents who deny the existence of AIDS.
Until February, when Mbeki finally relented to mass pressure, his government had refused to provide anti-AIDS medications to pregnant women to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. South Africa's drug regulatory body only approved the drug involved, nevirapine, on the eve of the court victory. Cabinet has yet to approve the details of the program.
On March 14, Mbeki refused to declare South Africa's debilitating AIDS epidemic a national emergency. Such a declaration would have allowed Pretoria to immediately invoke WTO provisions that would allow it to override patents owned by Western pharmaceutical corporations and import or manufacture generic versions of essential medicines at a fraction of the price charged for brand-name counterparts.
It appears that the agreement reached between the drug barons and Pretoria to end the court case will ensure that South Africa continues its subservience to the greed of the big Western pharmaceutical corporations. The joint statement of understanding issued by the government and the drug firms commits Pretoria to the respect of its international trade obligations.
Tshabalala-Msimang stressed that includes abiding by the provisions of the WTO's Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement that requires the South African government to respect the drug barons' 20-year monopoly rights to produce and market essential drugs. The ANC government also said that it would consult with drug manufacturers to formulate the regulations contained in section 15c of the contested Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Act. Mirryena Deeb, the chief executive of the PMA), confirmed this: We have basically laid down a partnership [with Pretoria] to allow us to move forward.