Issued by: GCIS
19 April 2001
Earlier today in the Pretoria High Court 38 pharmaceutical companies and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association announced that they were withdrawing from the court action that was intended to strike down major provisions of our Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Act of 1997.
We are pleased that the pharmaceutical industry has finally recognised both the legitimacy of our struggle, as South Africans, for affordable health care and the genuineness of our respect for the international trade treaties that we are party to. It is a pity that the pharmaceutical industry could not be persuaded to take this view three years ago, when the South African Government offered to work constructively with it to address concerns about the new law. The industry's response at the time was to take us to court in a costly and ultimately fruitless exercise.
We regard today's settlement as a victory in the sense that it unfreezes our law and restores to us the power to pursue policies that we believe are critical to securing medicines at affordable rates and exercising wise control over them. We have undertaken to include pharmaceutical manufacturers in such initiatives, where appropriate, and we fully intend to pursue this course of action.
The settlement that we have announced today is the product of a large number of people in many countries. It is the work of countless South Africans who stood up in an expression of national unity and clearly supported the approach of government. It is the achievement of organisations, activists and governments elsewhere in Africa and on other continents who recognised our particular battle as part of a broader movement for justice in health care.
While the South African Government's drug policy was driven mainly by domestic factors, we never lost sight of the international dimension and we hope our experience has contributed in some way to the larger debate on access to affordable health care for developing countries and for the poor in wealthier nations.
We do not delude ourselves that the end of the court case is the end of our struggle for access to affordable medicines. In reality, we are only at the star of a long and arduous journey and this law is merely a vehicle.
Difficult decisions about contending health care priorities lie ahead.
The Medicines Act was enacted but not promulgated when the court action was launched three years ago. Government will now go ahead and promulgate the law and within a few weeks draft regulations relating to various aspects of the Act will be published for public comment.
Certain aspects of the Act - such as the prohibition on sampling and the provision of incentives and bonuses by the industry - will kick in automatically with promulgation. In addition, we will move speedily to:
We will continue to engage the pharmaceutical industry - to consult them and to challenge them, as appropriate - in the local context and in the international arena. There is a growing realisation internationally that we cannot hope to make a dent on the major public health problems of developing countries without concentrating all available resources. This demands a new style of commitment from some parties and it certainly demands that we have the courage to venture into new partnerships.
The South African Government is proposing, as a start, to set up a joint working group with the pharmaceutical industry in order to consult on and consider broader issues in the area of health care.
Early in May I will invite the executives of all locally represented pharmaceutical companies to meet me to discuss a framework for an effective working relationship. My intention is that there should be a mechanism for regular interaction.
The resolution of this court case only confirms our view that international markets, which play an increasingly important role in all our lives, have no inbuilt conscience. But governments and ordinary people acting collectively have a precious responsibility to make the huge companies that dominate the markets accountable for how they respond to the most critical issues of our times.
Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang Minister of Health,
Republic of South Africa