Requests for Compulsory Licenses, Voluntary Licenses, Price Cuts

March 13, 2001. CPT Statement on South Africa's Options Regarding Compulsory Licensing.

Requests for Compulsory Licenses

Cipla asks South African Court for compulsory licenses

On March 7, 2001, Indian pharmaceutical manufacturer CIPLA formally requested the South African Department of Trade and Industry to issue compulsory licenses to patents on the following HIV drugs: nevirapine, lamivudine, zidovudine, stavudine, didanosine, efavirenz, indinavir and abacavir.

March 7, 2001. Cipla's Letter of request.
March 7, 2001. CPT Statement on CIPLA's request.
CPT page on CIPLA.

Cipla seeks compulsory licenses through antitrust action

COMPLAINT TO THE COMPETITION COMMISSION BY CIPLA-MEDPRO (PTY) LIMITED
Prices for selected ARV drugs in South Africa, taken from the text of the Complaint.
October 8, 2001. Pat Sidley for Business Day. Prices of AIDS drugs to drop.

South African activists seek compulsory license for Fluconazole Activists in South Africa have launched an effort to obtain a compulsoy license for fluconazole, an anti-fungal medicine used to fight opportunistic infections common among many people with AIDS, paricularly Cryptococcal Meningitis and Systemic Thrush.

CPT Backgrounder on Fluconazole. Contains revenues from fluconazole sales, medical uses and patent information.
MSF on Access to Fluconazole in Less Developed Countries. Includes a pricing survey of Fluconazole in countries wher MSF has HIV/AIDS programs.
TAC's Christopher Moraka Defiance Campaign Against Patent Abuse and AIDS Profiteering by Drug Companies. The campaign aims to make generic fluconazole widely available to the South African public.
February 22, 2001. Business Day. Pfizer gets fluconazole go-ahead

Glaxosmithkline offers voluntary licenses for 3TC, AZT and Combivir to Aspen Pharmacare.

October 8, 2003. Aspen Pharmacare press release. Aspen Pharmacare Receive Voluntary License from GlaxoSmithKline on Anti-Retroviral Patents in S.A.
October 7, 2002. CPT Comment on GSK/Aspen Deal.
June 7, 2002. Tamar Kahn for Business Day. Companies in row over distributing AIDS drug.
October 7, 2001. Associated Press. Generic AIDS Drug in South Africa.
RELATED: September 27, 2001. Aspen press release on deal with Merck.
May 23, Business Day. Aspen confident it has the solutions.
May 16, 2001. Mike Cohen, Associated Press. Aspen Seeks Permission to Make Cut-Price Copies of Patneted AIDS Medication.
May 15, 2001. Aspen Pharmacare announces their intention to request voluntary licenses from multinational pharmaceutical companies for local production of AIDS drugs.

Price Cuts

May 8, 2001. TAC protests Bristol-Myers Squibb over the fact that their price cuts for ddI and d4T announced March 14, 2001 have not actually led to reduced prices for these drugs on the ground, and in particular in the private sector. See the TAC Press Release.
April 6, 2001. GlaxoSmithKline announces it will not cut HIV drug prices in developing countries by more than the 90 per cent it has already offered, despite pleas from South Africa that western drugs are still too costly. See the Times of India story.
March 27, 2001. Abbott announces a price cut for two drugs (Ritonavir and Kaletra)and its HIV test, Determine. The dollar amount of the price cut is not specified - the company offers to sell the drugs and test "at no profit." This offer comes in the wake of similar price cuts offered by Bristol-Myers and Merck, as well as offers from generics firms such as Cipla and Hetero. For more information, see CPT page on offers of price reductions for HIV/AIDS drugs.

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