Glaxo to face Aids lawsuit
2003-11-13 22:28
Special Report
President Jacob Zuma has met with American businessman Bill Gates to discuss issues relating to the country's HIV/Aids pandemic.
Zoubair Ayoob
Durban - Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is to be the subject of a R1bn class action suit following the Competition Commission's recent ruling against the British company.
American NGO Aids Healthcare Foundation president Michael Weinstein said the CC ruled that millions had been denied access to Aids medication both because of the high cost of GSK branded products and because of the company's refusal to grant other companies the licence to manufacture cheaper generic versions of the desperately needed drugs.
"The GSK product brochure says 'The Key is Sustainability' but the primary obstacle to sustainability is the high price which is being illegally maintained by GSK," he said.
Weinstein said he anticipated a large sum being awarded but called on GSK, in the interests of reconciliation and of the future, to establish a R1bn fund of free Aids drugs for South Africa.
Strauss Daly Inc attorney Musa Ntsibande, who handled the CC case and who will be handling the suit, said the gist of the claim was that GSK abused its dominant position in the market by maintaining excessive prices which placed them out of the reach of the people who most needed them.
"The Competition Commission vindicated our complaint that GSK violated laws which prohibit dominant firms from excessive pricing to the detriment of consumers.
"They also did not give access to the patents of critical drugs to their competitors when it was economically feasible to do so," said Ntsibande.
Swazi Hlubi, executive director of the Network of Aids Communities of SA (NetComSA), said it was impossible to put a price on the suffering and deaths of millions in SA of Aids.
"Now that our Competition Commission has found GSK guilty, the weight of many of these deaths and the ongoing pain and suffering of those who cannot access
medication falls squarely on GSK.
"We invite any patients and family members harmed by GSK's policies to consider joining us in this joint action against
GSK," she said.
"This joint action law suit against GSK will seek the awarding of damages by the courts to patients or dependants who lost breadwinners to Aids who, because of excessive pricing by GSK, were not able to access treatment.
"With that in mind, we ask GSK now to do the right thing and set aside R1bn and earmark the sum for free Aids treatment here in South Africa," said Ntsibande.
- The Witness