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http://www.nandotimes.com/noframes/story/0,2107,500461431-500703324-50383785 5-0,00.html 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 janet paterson, an akinetic rigid subtype parkie 53 now / 44 dx cd / 43 onset cd / 41 dx pd / 37 onset pd TEL: 613 256 8340 SMAIL: PO Box 171 Almonte Ontario K0A 1A0 Canada EMAIL: [log in to unmask] URL: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/