South Africa takes on big pharma
The court battle between the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies and the South African government over the right to import cheap drugs during the HIV crisis.
At the end of the 1990s, tens of millions of people across Africa had been infected with HIV and in South Africa hundreds of thousands of people were dying from AIDS. People were demanding cheaper drugs, but the big pharmaceutical companies didn’t want to play ball. They took the South African to court over the right to import cheap drugs in a case which would last three years and which would pit the big pharmaceutical companies against Nelson Mandela and the rainbow nation. Bob Howard talks to Bada Pharasi, a former negotiator at South Africa’s department of health.
SANDTON, SOUTH AFRICA - JUNE 17: HIV/AIDS activists demonstrate in front of the American consulate on June 17, 2010. Credit: Photo by John Moore/Getty Images.
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- Thu 25 Mar 2021 08:50GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service
- Thu 25 Mar 2021 12:50GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Thu 25 Mar 2021 18:50GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Thu 25 Mar 2021 23:50GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Fri 26 Mar 2021 03:50GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service
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