Pharma drops S African patent case, welcomes govt commitment on TRIPS

The international pharmaceutical industry's three-year battle tooverturn a law allowing South Africa to import cheap generic copies of patented HIV/AIDS drugs ended on the morning of April 19, with the industry abandoning its lawsuit in the Pretoria High Court.

"With the consent of all parties, I simply ask to notify [that] the application is withdrawn," Stephanus Cilliers, lawyer for the 39 firms and the South African Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, told the court.

The long-running case had resumed briefly on April 18 after a six-week postponement granted by Judge Bernard Ngoepe to enable the drugmakers to respond to a brief brought by the Treatment Action Campaign, an AIDS activist group which he had admitted to the case as an amicus curiae (see page 16). However, industry representatives had met through the previous night to discuss a withdrawal and, as the case re-opened, Mr Cilliers requested a four-hour recess in the hope that "certain discussions that are going on" would obviate the need for further proceedings.