Drug firms withdraw suit against S. Africa

By M.S. Prabhakara

CAPE TOWN, APRIL 19. The case brought against the South African Government by the Pharmaceuticals Manufacturers' Association, a trade body comprising 39 multinational drug companies, has been withdrawn.

The Pretoria High Court which is hearing this case was informed of this by the lawyer for the drug companies, Mr. Fannie Cilliers, when it assembled this morning.

The Court, which resumed the hearings in the case yesterday after a six-week adjournment, adjourned once in the morning and again in the afternoon, following a representation from the lawyer for PMA that the Association was seeking a ``common ground for settlement.''

There was also intense popular mobilisation before and during the hearings on the issues involved by organisations engaged in a campaign to secure cheap and effective drugs, if necessary, by defying patent laws, for victims of HIV/AIDS.

The PMA took the Government to court challenging the constitutionality of some of the provisions of the Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Act, 1997, in particular Section 15-C of the Act which allows for the import or manufacture of generic formations of patented drugs marketed under well-known trade names, and for the so-called parallel importation of drugs.

The Act also provides for ``compulsory licensing''; that is, it enables the Health Minister to issue a compulsory license to enable a competitor to enter the market with a lower priced version of the same drug before the expiry of an existing patent, and without the permission of the present patent holder, on grounds of pubic interest.

Details of the settlement, or deal if any, are yet to be made public. However, according to a spokesperson for the PMA, the Association had decided to withdraw its suit on the assurance from the Government that it would abide by its ``obligations under TRIPS.''

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