Sunday Times, South Africa - May 21, 2000
Laurice Taitz

South Africans with AIDS received a slap in the face this week when it emerged that that the much-vaunted offer of cut-rate medicines was not true.

Hopes had been raised after reports said that African countries had been offered an 80 percent cut in the price of AIDS drugs. It was widely reported this week that the United Nations and pharmaceutical companies had reached a breakthrough agreement to lower drug prices in an effort to fight the epidemic in poorer countries.

But now it has emerged that the major manufacturers have made no decision on pricing and had not made the offer.

The only offer was from a UK manufacturer, Glaxo-Wellcome, who made a condition offer the

SOUTH Africa and other African countries had not been offered an "80 percent cut" in the price of AIDS drugs as was widely reported this week, according to a spokesman for UNAIDS, the joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

Speaking from Geneva, press officer Dominique de Santis said the only public announcement made on price came from UK pharmaceutical company Glaxo Wellcome who offered an 85% reduction in the price of one of its drugs. -Even that only applied to its use within UN-supported and nationally led HIV prevention and care programmes.

This was confirmed by the five multinational drug companies - Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Glaxo Wellcome, Merck and F Hoffman-La Roche - who took part in the discussions with UNAIDS last week.

Vicki Ehrich, Director of Corporate Affairs at Glaxo Wellcome SA said: "The worst thing is that it has been reported that drug prices have been slashed. There is no way that drug companies can collude on pricing levels. It is illegal. "The blanket 80% cut in drug prices is just misreporting. "

But spokesmen for the UN and the drug companies were unanimous that the meeting had only:

Reached an "in principle" agreement to investigate ways of lowering prices, but these would only apply to drugs purchased by governments for public sector use;

Discussed the "possibility" of lower prices for existing UNsupported HIV/AIDS pilot projects and not for the public at large;

Agreed that a whole range of drugs would be included as part of the initiative - not only anti-retroviral drugs, but drugs to treat opportunistic infections and sexually transmitted diseases as well as to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus - and each would be dealt with separately;

Decided that pharmaceutical companies would deal individually with countries on a case-by-case basis.

Mirryena Deeb, chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association of South Africa said this agreement meant not all developing countries would receive the same level of assistance from the partnership.

Meanwhile, developing countries have countered with their own initiative at a meeting this week of another UN body, the World Health Assembly - attended by health ministers from 191 countries.

Brazil, supported by Zimbabwe stunned pharmaceutical companies by demanding that:

The World Health Organisation set up a database of where the cheapest anti-AIDS drugs were available to enable poor countries to buy drugs at the lowest price possible on the global market;

Poorer countries be allowed, despite World Trade Organisation restrictions, to bypass drug manufacturers and import generic versions of the drugs at the lowest prices;

The move was also supported by South Africa's Minister of Health, Dr Manto TshabalalaMsimang.

Zimbabwe's deputy High Commissioner to South Africa, Danson Mudekunye said on Friday:

"We are more in favour of partnerships between pharmaceutical companies and consumer countries that would result in franchises where the drugs would be produced locally. Instead of being manufactured in the US or Europe and shipped here at great cost they should be manufactured in Africa."

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