Informant38

Randall Tobias
the former chief executive of the giant US drug company Eli Lilly
the man appointed to head the president's Aids strategy

The United States, under pressure from its giant pharmaceutical companies, is trying to undermine the use in poor countries of cheap, copycat Aids drugs, made by "pirate", generic companies but validated by the World Health Organisation, campaigners claim.
US drug companies want the money promised for President George Bush's Aids plan to be spent on their products.
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Because the patents on the component drugs are held by different multinationals, only the generic companies make a basic three-in-one pill. A very simple regime, taking one pill, twice a day, is considered to be most feasible in poor countries. Scientists working for the WHO have examined and approved certain generic three-in-one pills.
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When President Bush pledged R96-billion for Aids in his state of the union address last year, and hailed the plunge in drug prices to R1 980 a year, it was assumed that the US would be willing to buy generics to make the money go further. However, Randall Tobias, the former chief executive of the giant US drug company Eli Lilly and the man appointed to head the president's Aids strategy, claims that generic drugs manufactured overseas may not be made to the consistency and quality of those manufactured in the US.
"It would be a disaster if we invested in drugs that were not consistent, don't have all the right components and we just don't know whether some of these do or do not," he told the House of Representatives' international relations committee earlier this month.
But WHO officials involved in approving the generic drugs defend their system, pointing out that the drug regulatory agencies of France, Switzerland, Canada and South Africa are among those involved in the process.

Mail&Guardian (South Africa) Mar.22.04