JOHANNESBURG, Dec 1 (AFP) - US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer will supply the AIDS drug fluconazole at no cost to the South African government for two years under an agreement signed in Johannesburg Friday.

The memorandum of understanding was signed by Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and Pfizer regional representative Barry Smith at a press conference to coincide with World AIDS Day.

The deal was the result of eight months of talks, the minister said, and the drug should be available for use in the public health sector early next year.

The donation of fluconazole, manufactured by Pfizer under the brand-name Diflucan, was worth about 375 million rand (50 million dollars/ 56 million euro), said Pfizer spokeswoman Konji Sebati.

The drug will be used to treat the AIDS-related illnesses cryptococcal meningitis and oesophageal candidiasis, which affect up to 10 percent and 40 percent respectively of all AIDS patients, Tshabalala-Msimang said.

An estimated 4.2 million South Africans are infected with HIV or AIDS.

The government's decision not to implement a "large scale anti-retroviral programme" in the public health sector was based on the unaffordable cost of drugs, not on an ideological stance, the health minister said.

"The lack of equitable access to affordable drugs exposes the pitfalls of the world's trading systems and this is a sore point between the major drug manufacturers, based largely in developed countries, and the disproportionately affected and resource-constrained developing countries," she said.

Sebati said the agreement had arisen out of a crisis in South Africa where many patients needing the drug "were as severely stricken by poverty as by AIDS."

The agreement with Pfizer could serve as a model for similar agreements between the drug company and other countries in the 14-nation Southern African Development Community, according to Tshabalala-Msimang.

"In our negotiations we pleaded with Pfizer that not just South Africa benefits," she said.

On Thursday, South Africa's Medicines Control Council (MCC) gave the green light for the importation from Thailand of a version of fluconazole which is called Biozole.

This was after the AIDS activist group Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) smuggled in samples of Biozole capsules, which it submitted to the MCC for testing.

TAC said Pfizer sold fluconazole for 80.24 rand (about 10.40 dollars, 11 euros) per capsule to the private sector and 28.57 rand per capsule to the public sector in South Africa, while the Thai equivalent cost 1.78 rand.

TAC chairman Zackie Achmat criticised the signing of the Pfizer deal on World Aids day as a "publicity stunt."

"It is not the first time that (the deal) has been announced. The first time was in was in March and then again in July at the AIDS conference and we still have not seen the pills come," he told AFP.

"We will support the deal once the pills reach the people. If they were serious about this they would have sat down two weeks ago and started implementing the agreement instead of waiting for World AIDS Day."

Achmat said TAC also wanted the deal extended to the private sector to include the many white- and blue-collar workers who would not be able to get the drug through the public health service and who could not afford the drug because they did not have medical aid.

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