COSATU/TAC - Joint Media Statement
17 April 2001
Put lives before profits! 
Defend the Medicines Act!

Campaign for affordable treatment for HIV/AIDS and all other illnesses!

Cosatu and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), are once again calling
upon all their members and the whole community to join protests outside
the Pretoria High Court from 18th-25th April against the Pharmaceutical
Manufacturers Association (PMA). We are calling on everyone to make a
sacrifice to attend this demonstration on a crucial issue of worldwide
significance.

More than four million people in South Africa are infected with
HIV/AIDS. It has claimed more lives than any war in this country. We
cannot stand aside and let millions more die. Our protest has won the
support of millions around the world. The International Confederation of
Free Trade Unions and countless unions and NGOs internationally have
supported us. We thank all those who have given this support and ask
them to continue until we are victorious.

In particular we welcome the decision of the French Government to call
upon French pharmaceutical companies to withdraw from the case. We
demand that any French companies still taking part in the action
withdraw from the case and call upon all other governments to follow the
French example.

If the PMA succeeds, it will be an enormous blow for poor people in
South Africa, and of the whole world, especially the poor Southern half
of the world and sub-Saharan Africa. 

We demand that the PMA unconditionally withdraw their court action
against our Government in their bid to try to stop the implementation of
an Act that aims to make it possible to provide the sick and the poor
with cheaper medicines.

At the hearing, TAC, who have been accepted as an amicus curiae (friend
of the court) will submit legal arguments as to why this law is
necessary. TAC brings to the court the perspective of people living with
HIV/AIDS and the poor.

In 1997 the South African government passed the Medicines and Related
Substances Control Amendment Act, to make drugs more affordable and to
improve the functioning of the Medicines Control Council. 

Cosatu supports this law because it introduced a legal framework to make
medicines more available and affordable in the public and private
sectors, through: 

1.  Generic substitution of medicines - substituting brand-name drugs
with cheaper ones of the same quality and active ingredient. 
2.  A pricing committee - which sets up a transparent pricing mechanism
and forces drug companies to justify their prices.
3.  Parallel importation - which allows the government to import the
same medicines sold by the same companies, or its licensee, at a lower
price in another country.
4.  International tendering for medicines used in the public sector. 


In 2000 alone, drug companies around the world made sales of more that
$315 billion - more that the gross domestic product of all SADC
countries. So why are these companies taking the government to court? 
·   They claim the government is trying to “expropriate or confiscate
their property” and giving the Minister of Health “too much power”. 
·   They fear competition and being exposed as profiteering from
medicines;
·   They say that mandatory generic substitution is unfair and
discriminatory.
·   They argue that the quality of generics will be much lower than
their products.

In reality, their main concern is that these measures will have a
negative impact on their massive profits. 

The Medicines Act deserves the support of all people in South Africa and
internationally. It attempts to improve the health care system by
lowering the price of essential medicines. This is very crucial for
people living with HIV/AIDS as well as people with many other serious
illnesses.  

For further information please phone Theo Steele on 011 339 4911.

Siphiwe Mgcina
COSATU Spokesperson
siphiwe@cosatu.org.za
082-821-7456
011 339-4911