Drug giant 'fiddles while SA burns'

The US-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is taking the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline to the South African competition commission, South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper reported on Tuesday.

AHF said it wants GlaxoSmithKline to allow generic drug manufacturers in South Africa to produce its proprietary HIV/AIDS medicines. This would reduce the cost of treatment for people infected with HIV.

"Glaxo fiddles while South Africa burns...We are filing this complaint against GlaxoSmithKline to prevent the ongoing irreparable harm that is occurring both in South Africa and throughout the world," AHF president, Michael Weinstein said.

"GlaxoSmithKline's stranglehold on key HIV/AIDS drug patents and their unfettered monopoly pricing on these life-saving medications means thousands of deaths daily," Weinstein added.

GlaxoSmithKline spokeswoman, Vicky Ehrich said the complaint was a continuation of a process started last year by the local HIV/AIDS lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).