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Drug companies to sell inexpensive AIDS drugs in Africa

By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (March 8, 2001 7:02 p.m. EST
http://www.nandotimes.com) - After years of little progress in bringing
affordable AIDS medication to Africa, two momentous announcements - one by a
mainstream drug company, the other by a generic manufacturer - offered hope
that some of the tens of millions of infected people might one day get
treatment.

Pharmaceutical giant Merck and Co. announced Wednesday it would sell two key
AIDS medications to poor countries at about one-tenth their U.S. price.

Earlier in the day, Cipla, an Indian-based generic drug manufacturer,
applied to the South African government for a compulsory license,
essentially permission to sell cheap versions of patented AIDS drugs in the
country.

Both announcements came as the pharmaceutical industry took a public
relations pounding for suing South Africa to prevent the enactment of a law
that would have given the government access to cheap, generic versions of
AIDS medications. That trial, which began Monday, was postponed for six
weeks.

More than 25 million of the 36 million people infected with HIV live in
sub-Saharan Africa, one of the world's most impoverished regions. Unlike in
wealthier Western countries, the vast majority of the developing world's
people infected with the virus have no access to life-prolonging AIDS
medication and will die from the debilitating effects of the disease.

The possibility of affordable medication could change South Africa's
approach to treating the disease, said Mark Haywood, an AIDS activist who is
head of the AIDS Law Center in Johannesburg.

He said that without medication, millions of infected South Africans see no
reason to take an AIDS test; there is nothing to suppress the disease in
infected people, and they more easily infect others; and no incentive exists
for the government to build the health care infrastructure needed to
administer the drugs in rural areas.

"It would reinvigorate the whole response to AIDS," he said. "At the moment,
the message that is directly given out by many doctors and nurses is,
'You've got AIDS. You're dead. Go home."'

In an effort to make cheaper drugs available to its 4.2 million infected
people, South Africa in 1997 passed a law allowing it to import or
manufacture generic versions of those drugs. The pharmaceutical industry
filed suit, saying the law was arbitrary and that it specifically targeted
them.

As the suit came to trial Monday, AIDS activists, international humanitarian
organizations and the government joined a rally demanding the drug companies
drop their suit and condemning them for caring more about profits than
people.

Pharmaceutical companies responded by highlighting several offers they have
made over the past year to give sharply discounted AIDS medication to the
developing world. But South Africa and other countries have complained those
offers were vague, and they have yet to reach agreements giving them access
to the drugs.

On Wednesday, however, Merck & Co. made a very specific offer. It would sell
the AIDS drug Crixivan to developing countries for $600 per patient per year
instead of the $6,016 per patient it sells for in the United States. It
would also sell the AIDS drug Stocrin for $500 per patient per year instead
of the $4,730 the equivalent drug cost in the United States.

"It's a very positive thing," said Frederick Abbot, an adviser to the South
African government and a visiting professor at the University of California
at Berkeley. "For the past several years there has been a lot of talk about
potential offers without real offers or prices put on the table. We now have
an actual offer with real prices."

Health Minister Manto Tshbalala-Misimang said in a statement Thursday that
agreements with pharmaceutical companies would not end the need for
legislation ensuring it has access to affordable medication.

"We cannot rely forever on the begging bowl, aid programs and charitable
gestures," she said. "We need mechanisms that are sustainable."

Last month, Cipla, the Indian generic manufacturer, offered to sell copies
of the patented medications to developing countries for about $600 a year
per person, about 5 percent of what the drugs cost in the United States and
Europe.

Dr. Yusuf Hamied, CEO of Cipla, said his company in December sought
permission from pharmaceutical companies to manufacture their patented drugs
in return for a license fee.

With no response in three months, he decided to try a different route, and
asked South Africa's registrar of patents to unilaterally grant him a
license to sell his versions of patented products in return for a 5 percent
royalty payment, he said.

Legal experts say the application could take more than six months to
process.

The pharmaceutical industry, which had argued in court Monday that South
Africa's current patent law was sufficient to allow generic drugs into the
country, said it accepted Cipla's right to file the application.

Copyright 2001 Nando Media

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