Word: genericism
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...global pharmaceutical corporation looking to protect an AIDS-drug patent. But the campaign led by Achmat to secure treatment for South Africa's 4.7 million HIV patients this week scored an epic victory when 39 pharmaceutical companies withdrew a lawsuit to block South Africa from importing cheaper generic copies of patented AIDS drugs. For leading the campaign that shamed the corporations into backing down, raising new hope for millions of AIDS sufferers throughout the developing world, Zackie Achmat is our Person of the Week...
...crucial incentive for companies to invest in developing new treatments, the Treatment Action Group made common cause with AIDS activists in the industrialized countries on a two-pronged program - to press pharmaceutical corporations to slash their prices, and to press governments to allow developing countries to buy cheaper generic copies of patented AIDS drugs from India, Brazil and Thailand...
...power of the Treatment Action Group's international networking became clear late in 1999, when ACT-UP protesters began dogging then-vice president Al Gore on the campaign trail to demand that the White House withdraw the threat of sanctions against South Africa in retaliation for any importing of generic AIDS drugs. The pressure worked - President Clinton issued an executive order to that effect, which President Bush has allowed to stand. After all, what politician wants to be seen standing up for intellectual property rights (and profits) in a situation where they may keep life-saving drugs...
...Zackie Achmat and the Treatment Action Group kept up their pressure. Last October, Achmat took a highly publicized trip to Thailand, returning with a suitcase full of Biozole, a locally manufactured generic copy of Fluconazole - a drug used to treat opportunistic infections in AIDS patients - that he bought at a price 98 percent cheaper than the price charged in South Africa for the brand-name tablets. This illegal "import" was a symbolic act of defiance, designed to challenge the drug companies and stiffen the spine of his own government. "People were dying across the country and doctors were saying they...
...proactive course of taking all means necessary to address the crisis [MEDICINE, March 19]. American-based pharmaceutical giants have not upheld the fine tradition of scientists like Alexander Fleming and Marie Curie, who had no greed. The onus rests on African nations to import or, better yet, produce cheap generic AIDS drugs. LULUFA KUNDUL VONGTAU Kaduna, Nigeria...