Re: [adf2000-l] U.S. Offers Africa Billions to Fight AIDS

> Date:          Mon, 24 Jul 2000 02:51:20 +0200
> From:          Georges Drouet <gdrouet@brutele.be>
> We welcome this U.S gesture. 
> ... o) we look forward to your comments

Georges, you want comments. I agree with the points you and your 
colleagues are making, especially the hard-currency liability. 
There are another two, as well. First, the transnational drug 
companies have been searching for any excuse to stall and derail 
efforts at getting generic drugs production going in the South. Last 
week it was revealed that the pharmaceutical companies had even 
violated US antitrust law by bribing potential competitors to keep 
their product off the market. Isn't this the underlying logic of US 
Exim's new offer?

Most importantly, why "welcome" the gesture at all, given that the 
progressive movement, at least here in Johannesburg, is on the 
verge of mounting sufficient pressure on the South African government 
to immediately bring in parallel imports (from India or Brazil) at a 
tiny fraction of the price and hopefully also get generic production 
of anti-retrovirals and other essential medicines licensed, for local 
and regional consumption. That is the solidarity that the SA 
Treatment Action Campaign and their allies in ACT UP (esp. 
Philadelphia) have been suggesting, and why the successful struggle 
against Al Gore's opposition to the SA Medicines Act was so important 
a year ago...

Cheers,
Patrick

PS: My broader comments on this issue are in a couple of articles I 
can email you or anyone who wants:

"Globalization, Pharmaceutical Pricing and South African Health 
Policy: Managing Confrontation with US Firms and Politicians," 
International Journal of Health Services, v29, #4, pp.765-792.

"A Political Economy of South African AIDS," Z-Net Commentary,
July 17 2000.
Patrick Bond (pbond@wn.apc.org)
home: 51 Somerset Road, Kensington 2094 South Africa
phone:  (2711) 614-8088
work:  University of the Witwatersrand
Graduate School of Public and Development Management
PO Box 601, Wits 2050, South Africa
work email:  bond.p@pdm.wits.ac.za
work phone:  (2711) 717-3917
work fax:  (2711) 484-2729
cellphone:  (27) 83-633-5548