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HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: AIDS Group Forms Company to Provide Cheap Drugs
By Nawaal Deane
DURBAN, Aug 6 (IPS) - AIDS activists have launched a new company to sell
cheap anti-retroviral drugs to people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
The company, known as the Generic Anti-retroviral Procurement Project
(GARPP), was launched this week after activists accused the government of a
"lack of political will" to provide anti-retroviral drugs to the needy.
Up to five million people are living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
The company's board members range from AIDS heavyweight activists Zackie
Achmat, Eric Goemaere, Western Cape Medicins Sans Frontiers to Glenda Gray,
a pediatrician at the Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital in Johannesburg, and
Wilbert Bannenberg, a health consultant.
The company was formed after a meeting between AIDS activists and
researchers last November, GARPP managing director Wilbert Bannenberg said.
The launching of GARPP at the AIDS conference in the port city of Durban
came on the heels of a mass protest action by members of the Treatment
Action Campaign (TAC), a local pressure group.
The protestors marched in the
streets of Durban carrying wooden crosses and posters with the names of
those who have died from the disease.
Around 600 people die of AIDS-related diseases in South Africa every day,
according to TAC.
During the demonstration, the protestors handed over a memorandum,
calling on the conference to support their call for a national
anti-retroviral treatment plan.
"The march was organised to show the conference that science without
political will is pointless," said Nathan Geffen, TAC spokesperson.
The conference chair Jerry Coovadia welcomed the marchers, and received
their memorandum detailing the "roll-out anti-retroviral treatment" plan.
The TAC also protested at the opening of the conference Sunday evening
when its members held up banners, saying: "Two pills a day saves lives".
Health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was making a speech at the time.
Achmat said they were tired of the "foot-dragging" by government to
implement an anti-retroviral treatment plan. "We have given them enough time
to act by suspending our civil disobedience campaign," she said.
Despite the best efforts of the organisers, the politics around HIV/AIDS
has managed to infiltrate into the corridors of the conference.
High up on
the agenda was the issue of the decision by the Medicines Control Council to
review the registration of Nevirapine.
Last week the country's drug
regulatory body announced that it has given pharmaceutical giant
Boehringer-Ingelheim 90 days to supply additional evidence on the efficacy
of the drug. Nevirapine is used throughout South Africa to prevent the
transmission of HIV from pregnant mother to their unborn child.
The ultimatum has caused an uproar at the conference. It is estimated
that around 8,000 babies are born to HIV-infected mothers each month in
South Africa.
A special plenary session has been set aside to deal with these concerns.
In a videotaped speech Peter Piot, UNAIDS executive director, said only a
united front fully committed to achieving a set of common goals will defeat
the epidemic. He said the UN Declaration of Commitment is very clear that
prevention and treatment are equally essential components in the response to
AIDS.
"Throughout the world, the debate is not on whether to offer
anti-retroviral treatment in the public sector, but how to do it given the
numerous real constraints," he said. "But for heaven's sake, let us not wait
to act until we have the perfect solution, because the era of perfect
solution is still far away."
About 600,000 South Africans were ready to start treatment with
anti-retrovirals, but only about 1,500 in the state sector were receiving
treatment, says TAC.
In the private sector, the figure is around 20,000 people on the
anti-retrovirals, it says.
Bannenburg says a combination of anti-retroviral drugs - the ANZ, 3CT and
Nevirapine - could be bought from the company for 40 U.S. dollars a month,
cheaper than what is sold in the market now. (END/2003)
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