The world's most powerful drug firms came under a deluge of criticism from AIDS activists today who denounced the industry for putting
profits ahead of the lives of the 25 million Africans who live with HIV-AIDS.
The attack came ahead of a court case in the South African capital Pretoria tomorrow which is seen as an acid test of the developing world's ability to secure affordable medicines by importing generic versions of patented medicines.
The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association of South Africa (PMA), which represents 39 leading drug firms, said it had taken the South African government to court to protect its patent rights which finance future medical research.
"It is vital the companies lose the case... The drug firms are engineering a gross violation of human rights in South Africa that would set a terrible precedent for other developing countries," Mr Kevin Watkins, senior policy adviser with British charity Oxfam, told reporters.
"This is the Vietnam of the drug industry. They have walked into a public relations disaster," Mr Watkins said.
Oxfam said that Pretoria's inability to get access to cheaper, generic drugs would be a catastrophe for South Africa's public health system. A court win for the drug firms, it said, would mean the next generation of medicines would be more costly.
Aid groups urged the drug firms to drop the case, which centres on the legality of the Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Act which Pretoria says is vital to meet its constitutional duty of getting health care to its people.
AIDS activist group Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), which is testifying in the trial, charged the drug firms with greed.
"The right to life, dignity and health supersedes the right of drug companies to profiteer. In the end it is about greed on the one hand and the right to life on the other," TAC head Mr Zackie Achmat told reporters.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), one of several international groups helping South Africa to fight the PMA, said generic drugs were available for about a quarter of the price charged by the major pharmaceutical companies.