‘Patents and Western drug companies are the main obstacle…’

  As we can see from above, it is the world’s richer governments that are the leading obstacles to change on this issue.  The big, multi-national drug companies have taken much of the flak in the past few years, particularly in the light of the ill-advised court case against the government of South Africa earlier this year.  However, they are not all bad and some have made enormously generous offers of aid in the form of free or cheap drugs to poor countries.

  As the recent legal proceedings in both South Africa and Brazil have shown, international law allows for exemptions to patent rights in the case of national or public health emergency, even for ‘middle income’ countries where there perceived to be a significant AIDS crisis.

  Drug companies are coming around to the realities of the developing world and the need for fair, differential pricing.  They naturally need to make a return on their investments and it is only reasonable to expect richer countries to pay the full costs for their drugs and to support international structures that prevent undercutting by cheap, generic imports here in the West. 

  The development of new, combination, HAART drugs, which are suitable for use in the developing world is a key role that drug companies can play and they should therefore be regarded as part of the solution.