Drug Firms Take on S. African Government

The global drug industry took South Africa’s government to court in a landmark challenge condemned by several thousand AIDS activists parading through Pretoria with posters saying “Lives before profits.” The hearing at the Pretoria High Court is seen as a test of the ability of the richest drug firms to protect billion-dollar patent rights against a government looking for an affordable way to fight the AIDS epidemic sweeping the African continent. The hearing was adjourned for the day after an initial argument by the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Assn. of South Africa, which represents 39 drug firms, that a proposed law conditionally allowing the import of generic drugs would violate international patent rights. The drug firms argue that the law, originally passed under President Nelson Mandela in 1997, gives unconstitutional and arbitrary powers to the minister of health in deciding when the state can make or import generic versions of patent drugs. South Africa has accused the drug firms of failing to deliver on promises of cut-price medicines under a United Nations program. “This legal challenge is a warning to other developing countries that many within the world’s pharmaceutical industry will use any tactic to defend their patents, whatever the cost in human suffering,” the aid organizations Oxfam and Medecins Sans Frontieres said. The hearings are scheduled to end March 12.