South Africa: El "apartheid" de Novo...

THE first casualty of the row between Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and the Innovative Pharmaceutical Association of South Africa (Ipasa) over the government’s plans to change its rules for medicine patents emerged on Wednesday as Denmark’s Novo Nordisk quit the group. 

 "Novo Nordisk resigned from Ipasa last week (due) to disagreement on a public relations campaign proposed by Ipasa, which we felt did not serve our or the industry’s interests," spokeswoman Shelley Harris said. 

 Ms Harris was referring to a R6m public affairs campaign against the government’s draft intellectual property policy put forward by Washington-based Public Affairs Engagement (PAE). Two independent sources told Business Day that there was deep unhappiness among some Ipasa members over the way a group of US-based Ipasa members had been pushing for the acceptance of the PAE’s campaign. 

 Among the measures proposed in the PAE’s strategy, leaked to the media last week, was the creation of a South African organisation to lobby against the policy that would have the appearance of a local political movement but would be run from the US. 

 

Ipasa was formed less than a year ago by the merger of Innovative Medicines South Africa and the Pharmaceutical Industry Association of South Africa. It was the first single organisation representing "innovator" pharmaceutical companies since the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association split after it was forced to drop its controversial court case against the Medicines and Related Substances Amendment Act in 2001. 

 All of Ipasa’s members are research-based pharmaceutical companies that sell patented medicines and are potentially threatened by changes the government is proposing to its intellectual property laws that will make it harder to get patents and easier for cheap generic rivals to enter the market. (Más)