Drug firms abandon fight to stop cut-price medicines

Demonstrators protest against the drug firms' case outside the high court in Pretoria Keystone

A group of pharmaceutical firms have dropped their court bid to prevent South Africa from importing cheap copies of patented Aids drugs. The move comes after aid agencies launched a massive campaign against the firms' action, saying they were putting profits ahead of lives.

A lawyer representing the 39 drugs’ firms, which include Switzerland’s Novartis and Roche, told Pretoria court on Thursday that his clients had unanimously decided to scrap their challenge to a South African law, which allows the country to import cut-price generic drugs.

“With the consent of all parties, I simply ask to notify [that] the application is withdrawn.”

The South African health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said the government had not agreed to any deals in exchange for having the companies drop the suit.

However, one of the firms involved, GlaxoSmithKline, told Reuters news agency that South Africa had made a commitment to respect international law on drug patents. The company, which is one of the world’s biggest makers of Aids drugs, declined to elaborate further.

The lawsuit had been seen as a landmark battle in the effort to secure medication for the millions of people in Africa infected with HIV.

The drug firms’ decision followed widespread speculation on Wednesday that they would withdraw their legal challenge under huge pressure from aid agencies.

Earlier this week in Switzerland, a group of 28 development and aid organisations, including Swissaid and Terre des Hommes, called on Roche and Novartis to withdraw from the case.

They said it was “shocking that [the firms] should give higher priority to preserving their profit margins and patents than the health of millions of people”.

The case centred on a South African law adopted in 1997 – but never implemented – which gives the health minister a limited right to import generic versions of patented drugs or to license their domestic production.

The drug companies had argued that the law infringes patent rights and discriminates against the industry, endangering profits and research.

But the South African government maintained that it cannot afford to pay for patented drugs to fight the Aids epidemic, which has affected about 10 per cent of the country’s population of 45 million.

Opposition to the drugs’ firms case was echoed by the United Nations programme on HIV/Aids (UNAIDS). Policy adviser, Ben Plumley, said drug firms needed to re-think their approach to poorer countries.

“The kind of dynamic that exists in the industrialised world – where drug companies recoup their investment in research and development and provide return to shareholders – should not apply in the same way in the developing world.”

The British charity, Oxfam, described the case as “the Vietnam of the drug industry” and accused the firms of violating human rights by denying drugs to those in need.

swissinfo with agencies

More details to follow