---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 7 Apr 1999 22:01:33 -0400 From: James Love <love at cptech.org> To: Multiple recipients of list INFO-POLICY-NOTES
<info-policy-notes at essential.org> Subject: US law requires US Department of State to seek repeal of South African
law on essential medicines
------------------------------------------------------------ Info-Policy-Notes | News from Consumer Project on Technology ------------------------------------------------------------ April 7, 1999
US law requires US Department of State to seek
repeal of South African law on essential medicines
Vice President Gore plays key role in dispute
I found the following provision buried in last year's 423,911 word appropriation bill. This legislation requires the US government to seek the repeal, suspension or termination of legislation in South Africa that authorizes parallel imports and compulsory licensing of medicines. These are mechanisms the government of South Africa is trying to use to obtain less expensive pharmacuetical drugs to combat a health care disaster. According to the US Department of State, the author of this provision is Rep. Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (R-NJ).
How bad are things in South Africa?
It is estimated that 3.2 million South Africas are HIV positive, including a staggering 45 percent of the military. One in five South African pregmant women test positive for HIV.
In the face of this horror, the US Congress and the Clinton/Gore Administration is determined to prevent South African from using its rights under international law and the WTO/Gatt agreement to obtain cheaper sources of essential medicines.
This is the provision in the US appropriations bill:
<---------------------Excerpt from PL 105-277---------------->
*Public Law 105-277 105th Congress
An Act
Making omnibus consolidated and emergency appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1999, and for other purposes. <<NOTE: Oct. 21,
1998 - [H.R. 4328]>>
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in <<NOTE: Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999.>> Congress assembled,
[snip]
Provided further, That none of the funds appropriated under this heading may be made available for assistance for the central Government of the Republic of South Africa, until the Secretary of State reports in writing to the appropriate committees of the Congress on the steps being taken by the United States Government to work with the Government of the Republic of South Africa to negotiate the repeal, suspension, or termination of section 15(c) of South Africa's Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Act No. 90 of 1997:
[snip]
<------------------End Excerpt from PL 105-277---------------->
The disputes over the South African legislation have been focused on two issues, parallel importing of drugs, which would permit South Africa to seek the cheapest world price for a drug (a practice that is common in England and other members of the European Union), and compulsory licensing.
Under compulsory licensing, which is permited by the World Trade Organization under Article 31 of the TRIPS agreement on intellectual property, South Africa can issue a compulsory license for AIDS drugs like AZT, ddI or ddC, if it follows certain safeguards, and pays a government set royalty to the patent owner. For some drugs this reduces the price by 70 to 95 percent, depending upon manufacturing costs. Several of the drugs that are candidates for compulsory licensing, including AZT, ddI and ddC, were developed by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Vice President Gore plays a large role in this dispute, as the US Chair of the US/South Africa Binational Commission (BNC). According to the Vice President Gore's staff, on every occasion that Vice President Gore has meet with Thabo Mbeki, his South African counterpart, Gore has pressed South Africa on the intellectual property issues relating to pharmaceuticals. The Gore/Mbeki commission is considered a key instrument to pressure South African not to use compulsory licensing of HIV/AIDS drugs.
For more information about this issue, see
http://www.cptech.org/ip/health
http://lists.essential.org/pharm-policy
http://www.cptech.org/march99-cl
For the pharmaceutical industry perspective, see the PhRMA 301 submission to the United States Trade Representative (the document the US Department of State has been providing to AIDS groups who ask about US policy.)
http://www.phrma.org/issues/nte/safrica.html
Jamie Love <love at cptech.org>
Consumer Project on Technology
202.387.8030
------------------------------------------------------------ INFORMATION POLICY NOTES: the Consumer Project on Technology http://www.cptech.org, 202.387.8030, fax 202.234.5127. Archives and list management information are available on the web at: http://www.cptech.org/lists.html -------------------------------------------------------------