Campaigners around the world celebrated last week when the 39 drugs companies suing the South African government dropped their case after talks with the government. They were challenging a law allowing South Africa to import cheap generic versions of patented druge in cases of health emergency such as the AIDS crisis – in other words, the pharmaceutical transnationals wanted to preserve their profits at the cost of the lives of South Africans dying for lack of drugs. The Minister of Health has assured campaigners that no concessions were made in the talks and that the act will be implemented. The case had turned into a PR disaster for the drugs giants, with demonstrations around the world on the first day in court and condemnation from numerous NGOs, Nelson Mandela, the EU and even George Bush. The UK governemnt, however, refused to uphold South Africa’s right to protect its citizens [see news update 9/4/01 for full story].

It is widely suspected that the drugs companies may have had a further motive for backing down. The case had been adjourned for six weeks to allow them to provide evidence of their pricing policies, profits and sources of research funding, following a challenge by the South African Treatment Action Campaign. The multinationals were reportedly highly unwilling to reveal such ‘secret’ information – perhaps for fear of another PR disaster.

Ben Jackson, Director of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) said, ‘This amazing victory for public opinion should put an end to arguments promoting a health apartheid where only the rich can afford prolonged life. It is shameful that the British government did not join other governments in publicly supporting the right of developing countries like South Africa to improve access to medicines.’

Already, Kenya has announced that it is drafting a bill to permit the import of cheap generic drugs to tackle its own AIDS crisis – 700 people die of AIDS in Kenya every day, and 50% of hospital beds are taken up by AIDS patients.

Meanwhile, the US government, egged on by the American Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, is taking Brazil to a WTO tribunal on accusations of flouting TRIPs by manufacturing cheap copies of patent AIDS drugs. Brazil has cut AIDS deaths by half since introducing cheap treatment, but the drugs companies (led in this case by Merck and Pfizer) will be unwilling to give up the potentially lucrative Brazilian market as easily as they did the relatively tiny South African opportunities. Campaigners are broadening their focus to look at rewriting TRIPs to reinforce developing countries’ rights as well as challenging the drugs companies on a number of fronts – from their enormous profits to aggressive marketing and their commercial exploitation of discoveries by publicly funded researchers in universities.