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| Religious AIDS Activists Criticize Novartis | | Print | |
| Friday, 16 February 2007 | |
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Novartis must stop court pressure in India: The future of access to essential medicines under threat Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu joins churches, activists and health care workers Cape Town, February 15th 2007 Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has joined a coalition of churches, health care workers and activists in Southern Africa to call on pharmaceutical giant Novartis to drop its court challenge against the Indian government. Today, as a new court hearing takes place in India, millions of poor people around the world see their future chances to access essential medicines threatened. If Novartis wins, the Indian government will be forced to amend its patent law restricting severely the possibility of Indian companies to produce cheaper generics. Currently, Indian companies produce a large proportion of the generic medicines that are used in developing countries. As an example, today over half of the people on antiretroviral therapy in developing countries are taking Indian drugs. For countries with high prevalence of HIV and TB access to newer and affordable drugs is crucial. "In Khayelitsha 17.4% of people on ARV treatment for five years have had to switch to second line regimen, which costs the government over five times more than the first line combination", said Dr Eric Goemaere, Head of Mission of MSF in South Africa. "The only reason for this price difference is that most second line drugs are still only available from originator companies holding patents. If Novartis succeeds in India, we wont have alternatives to brand drugs coming from India and drug prices would inevitably go up." Novartis was one of the multi-national companies which in 2001 took the South African government to when it implemented legislation to allow more flexibility to access affordable medicines. At that time, civil society forced the pharmaceutical companies to abandon the court challenge. Support affordable access to medicines: Tell Novartis to drop the case. Sign the petition on-line at <http://www.msf.org>www.msf.org. Organisations in South Africa and Southern Africa that have endorsed the petition demanding Novartis to drop the case: - AIDS Law Project - AIDS and Rights Alliance of Southern Africa (ARASA) - Joint Civil Society Monitoring Forum - Médecins Sans Frontières - Pan-African Treatment Access Movement (PATAM) - Rural Doctors Association of Southern Africa (RuDASA) - South African Council of Churches - Southern Africa HIV Clinicians Society - Treatment Action Campaign For more information, contact Marta Darder (MSF) 0823329714 or Nathan Geffen (TAC) 0845426322 |
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