EuropaWorld 30/3/2001 European Parliament Urges Drugs Companies to Drop South African Law Suit

The European Parliament has called on many of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies to drop their legal case in South Africa over the right of that country to provide cheap drugs for its sick citizens. The case was re-opened on 5 March 2001.

The Parliament called on the pharmaceutical companies to drop their lawsuit against the South African government during its latest plenary session. South Africa is seeking the right to manufacture or provide generic versions of a number of medicines, patented by the drugs companies, including retroviral treatments for AIDS.

The European Parliament also urged the Commission to help developing countries resist the pressure to introduce more stringent patent laws, calling for the World Trade Organisation Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement to be reviewed. The rights of developing countries to obtain the cheapest possible life-saving medicines, whether patented or generic, should be guaranteed, it said.

The French humanitarian agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the British charity Oxfam have jointly welcomed the European Parliament's support for South Africa's attempt to make medicines accessible through its 1997 Medicines Act, which has been blocked by the drugs companies for three years. For more information about TRIPS see EuropaWorld 13/10/00 Free Health versus drug TRIPS.