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R O B E R T E . K E N N E D Y
The Pharmaceutical Industry and the AIDS Crisis in
Developing Countries
This case contains excerpts from recent articles on the AIDS crisis in Africa.
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Patents Pending: AIDS Epidemic Traps Drug Firms in a Vise: Treatment vs. Profits --- Suit in South
Africa Seeks To Block Generic Copies; . Reverses Its Policy --- Activists Warn Mr. Papovich
The Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2001, by Helene Cooper, Rachel Zimmerman and Laurie McGinley
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Can the pharmaceuticals industry inflict any more damage upon its ailing public image? Well, how
about suing Nelson Mandela?
That's how scores of international AIDS activists are portraying a lawsuit by 40 drug makers that will
be heard beginning Monday in a Pretoria courthouse. The suit seeks to overturn a law that Mr. Mandela
signed when he was president of South Africa. Under the law, South Africa can import cheap, generic
versions of patented medicines -- including powerful new drugs for treating AIDS -- without permission
from the patent owner.
As the case heads for court, many pany executives privately say they wish the lawsuit -- and
the Scrooge-like picture it paints of their industry -- would disappear. But publicly panies say
they're going forward because the South African law strikes at the heart of their most precious
commodity: patents.
"It's never good to be embroiled in a suit with your customers," says Harvey Bale, director general of
the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, a Geneva-based trade group.
But despite the bad press, he says, the industry must protect its patents, which he calls "the foundation of
research and development."
The pharmaceuticals industry is locked in a tightening international public-policy vise. On one hand,
panies want desperately to be seen as