Defying the Patents Act, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) have brought generic anti-retroviral drugs into the country from Brazil, a move that is set to spur another showdown with Government.

Three TAC members, including the chairperson Zackie Achmat, as well as COSATU representative Joyce Pikane arrived from Brazil on Monday with a consignment of anti-retrovirals that will be used for the MSF programme currently running in Khayelitsha. MSF Brazil bought the drugs from Farmanguinhos, which is owned and managed by the Government in Brazil, and donated the drug to MSF in Khayelitsha.  

Achmat said there was enough for the 85 people currently being treated as part of the MSF programme. He could not rule out the possibility of bringing in more supplies of the generic versions of AZT, 3TC, Combivir and Nevirapine in the near future.

“We want to show the (South African) Government that the Brazilian government had the courage to challenge the biggest country in the world (United States) to save its citizens,” said Achmat, pointing out that less than 1% of Brazil’s citizens were infected.

Of the 600 000 infected in Brazil, 115 000 were on anti-retrovirals. It is estimated that almost 5-million South African are currently infected.  

Achmat said they had defied the Patents Act by bringing the generics into the country. He urged Government to either ask the drug companies for voluntary licenses or to apply for compulsory licenses, moves that would make the drugs more affordable.

TAC also challenged the pharmaceutical industry to offer non-exclusive voluntary licenses available on their essential medicines.  

This would mean that any company could manufacture the patented drug. Achmat said the Brazilian generics cost them less than half of what MSF was paying for antiretroviral drugs at the moment.

TAC defied the patent on Fluconazole at the end of 2000 when it imported the generic version from Thailand at a fraction of the cost of what it was being sold in South Africa.

Fluconazole prolongs the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS, especially those that develop thrush or cryptococcal meningitis.  

TAC chairperson Zackie Achmat brought the drugs into South Africa via Johannesburg International Airport.

At the time a 200mg capsule of Fluconazole was being sold to the South African public sector at R28,57 and the private sector at R80,24 while the generic Thai capsule, a high quality version, could be purchased at a cost of R1,78 per capsule.

Pfizer later donated fluconazole to government for cryptococcal meningitis for all people living with HIV/AIDS.

In terms of the agreement, Pfizer has agreed to supply R375 million worth of Diflucan for HIV/AIDS patients attending government hospitals and clinics.  

TAC continue to import generic fluconazole from Biolab in Thailand. In 1998 Brazil began making copies of brand-name drugs, and the price of those medicines has fallen by an average of 79 per cent.      

Since 1997, virtually all patients in Brazil for whom it is medically indicated are able to get free treatment of the same triple cocktail of drugs that keep wealthy Americans healthy.

On the shaky foundation of its public health service, Brazil has built a well-run network of AIDS clinics.  

Brazilian patients have also proved just as able to take their medicine on time as patients in the US.

Brazil has also halved the death rate from AIDS, prevented hundreds of thousands of new hospitalizations, cut the transmission rate, stabilised the epidemic and improved the overall state of public health in Brazil.

Related story: Khayelitsha shows the way for antiretroviral therapy