SOUTH AFRICA: Opposition Party Negotiates for Antiretroviral Drugs, Defies National AIDS Policy
South Africa's main opposition party, the Democratic
Alliance, announced plans Friday to negotiate directly with
pharmaceutical companies for "cheap" antiretroviral drugs for pregnant women with HIV/AIDS
and rape victims in the district it controls, a move that "flies
in the face" of national government policy, the Associated
Press reports. DA leader Tony Leon said that the government has "ignored" a May
offer from five large drug firms to "radically drop" the
prices of HIV medication (Cohen, Associated Press,
10/27). "I can only assume that the whole government's policy is
driven by an antipharmaceutical company attitude which is
governing all its actions," he said, accusing the South African
government of having a "pathological fear" of the pharmaceutical
industry (Lovell, Reuters, 10/27). According to
Leon, drug companies could offer the price reductions similar to
those rejected by South Africa to provincial and local
governments. "We will therefore be able to take action on our
own behalf to make lifesaving drugs available to all South
Africans," he said. While Leon conceded that providing
antiretroviral drugs universally through the public health system
remains "unaffordable," he argued that supplying the treatment to
HIV-infected pregnant women and rape victims would only cost 1%
of the health budget (Associated Press, 10/27). "We
should be exploiting these offers where feasible. It is not
sensible to be in a state of war with the pharmaceutical
industry," he said (Reuters, 10/27).
Under the official South African policy of the African
National Congress, however, the government considers
antiretroviral drugs "dangerous and unaffordable"
(Associated Press, 10/27). South African President
Thabo Mbeki has said that "no proof" exists linking
the drugs with lower incidence of vertical HIV transmission, and he claims
that evidence shows that the toxicity of the treatment made it
"too dangerous" for pregnant women to use. In a letter to Leon,
Mbeki accused the DA leader of "racism, living on another planet
and lining his own pockets" through his erroneous claims about
antiretroviral drugs. An ANC spokesperson also blasted the DA
for "resorting to apartheid era biological warfare tactics" by
providing antiretroviral drugs to pregnant women in the black
township of Khayelitsha in the West Cape Province, which the DA
controls. Leon denied the ANC accusation, arguing that the
government continues to "di[g] its own grave and those of
thousands of South Africans." He said, "These drugs ...
described by the ANC as poison, have been in the public health
domain for 15 years. The government has dug itself into a hole
on the whole antiretroviral issue," adding, "It is a mistake with
tragic consequences. People are dying" (Reuters,
10/27).
Does Money Matter More?
Meanwhile, South African Health Minister Manto
Tshabalala-Msimang said that the government did not offer
antiretroviral drugs because the treatment remains "too
expensive." She also has accused drug companies of not
"presenting any substantive offer" and making statements that
"create the impression that governments of developing countries
are not committed to providing antiretroviral drugs." However,
while recently released government
guidelines recommend providing pregnant women with vitamin
supplements, treating their STDs and performing vaginal cleansing
during childbirth to help prevent HIV transmission, they "make no
mention" of antiretroviral drugs. Tshabalala-Msimang "condemned"
the "narrow view" that drugs offered the only method of
preventing HIV transmission from women to their infants
(Associated Press, 10/27).
The UNAIDS Theory
According to Ben Plumley, a spokesperson for the UNAIDS, South Africa has
expressed a lack of "formal interest" in the five drug companies'
offer to provide less expensive drugs to developing nations and
has sought a "more regional procurement" through the South
African Development Community. He also denied that the offer
served as a "public relations stunt" to "divert criticism" from
drug manufacturers. "The companies are certainly prepared to
translate their commitments into actions," Plumley said (Thom, Health-e,
10/27).
COSATU Joins Cheap Drug Hunt
South Africa's giant labor group
COSATU announced Wednesday that it would join a coalition of
the nation's antiAIDS groups to lobby foreign pharmaceutical
firms to cut prices on antiretroviral drugs. In a written
statement, the group "expressed it sympathies and support for a
campaign that would force pharmaceutical companies to drop the
price of medication." COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi
said, "We make the call, for the sake of human kind, for
pharmaceutical companies to drastically reduce the price of
medicines," adding, "COSATU will step up its campaign for
awareness, education and change of behavior as well as abstention
from sex or use of condoms" (Mseteka, Reuters,
10/25).
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