International poverty relief organisation, Oxfam has thrown its weight behind the South African Government and AIDS activists’€™ attempts to bring affordable life-saving drugs to marginalised South African communities.

Launching Oxfam Great Britain’€™s (GB) “Cut the Cost” Campaign in Pretoria, International Director Stewart Wallis, said he hoped Government would “win the court case”.

The court case on March 5 comes more than three years after Parliament passed the Medicines and Related Substances Control Amendment Act, No. 90 of 1997 (Medicines Act).

The new law primarily allows for:

the generic substitution of medicines that are no longer under patent;

the parallel importation which would allow government to import the same medicine sold by the same company or its licensee at a lower price in another country;

After nearly three years of delays, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PMA) and forty multinational drug companies will challenge Government’€™s decision in Court.

Wallis said it was time the pharmaceutical companies stopped “bullying” governments, the South African court case being a prime example.

“We want GlaxoSmithKline to take the lead and withdraw from the court case in March,” Wallis challenged.

In a strongly worded statement, Oxfam accused the pharmaceutical industry and governments of developed nations of keeping life-saving drugs beyond the reach of the world’€™s poor.

“World trade rules on drug patents are raising prices and restricting access to vital medicines, reinforcing the link between ill health and poverty, and widening the health gap between the rich and poor,” the statement said.

Wallis said a combination of factors had spurred the organisation to act now.

“The twenty year patents are coming in for a range of countries, there is the South African court case in March, the United States is threatening Brazil with trade sanctions because they are producing generic medicines and of course the effect the cost of drugs is having on people’€™s lives,” Wallis said.

Wallis said the rules had changed globally with a public health emergency necessitating the need to produce, import and sell low cost drugs.

“The cost of drugs needs to be cut immediately. There is no doubt that the AIDS epidemic in South Africa is a public health crisis,” said Wallis.

He also criticised the pharmaceutical companies for spending more money on researching drugs for hay fever, than malaria, the biggest killer in Africa.

Wallis said the launch of the campaign was just the beginning. “We are planning to generate public support and to campaign and lobby behind the scenes as much as possible.”

Wallis said they realised that cheap or free drugs were not the ultimate answer. “We are naive to thinks that we only need to cut prices. Of course health care delivery systems and other factors are just as important,” he said.

Oxfam also called for a U$5-billion international fund to research cures for neglected diseases and to subsidise drugs and delivery systems in poor countries.

Spokesperson for the Treatment Action Campaign, Nathan Geffen said they were very happy to have another partner joining them.

“Oxfam is a prestigious organisation and it is excellent that they are joining us,” said Geffen, who confirmed that TAC had “had a few chats with Oxfam”.

He said Oxfam would allow the campaign to broaden internationally while at the same time increasing pressure.

Oxfam International is a group of independent non-governmental organisations dedicated to fighting poverty and related injustice around the world.