[Letter to numerous pharmaceutical companies from Asia Russell, Mark Harrington, Gregg Gonsalves]

Bayer
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Eli Lilly & Company
GlaxoSmithKline
Hoecsht Marion Roussel
Janssen-Cilag Pharmaceutica
Merck, Sharp, & Dohme
Novartis
Pharmacia & Upjohn
Rhone-Poulenc Rorer
Roche Products
Schering-Plough
Warner-Lambert
Wyeth
Zeneca, South Africa
Boehringer-Ingelheim
F. Hoffman-La Roche
The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association of South Africa
January 29 2001
To the Chief Operating Executives of the aforementioned entities:
We the undersigned are HIV/AIDS treatment activists, human rights advocates, women's organizations,
and other concerned individuals and groups. You are receiving this letter because you are suing the
government of South Africa in an effort to maintain high prices for patented pharmaceuticals, which will
prevent millions of people from obtaining life extending treatment (Pharmaceutical Manufacturers
Association of South Africa versus the President of South Africa, case no. 4183/98). As you know, oral
arguments on this case will begin March 5, 2001 before the High Court in Pretoria. This three-year
lawsuit, a protracted effort to derail implementation of South African Medicines and Related Substances
Control Act ("the Medicines Act"), is having a deadly impact on South African people and citizens of
poor countries around the world. Therefore we demand you immediately remove yourself as a plaintiff
from this lawsuit.
The Medicines Act is an effort by the South Africa government to reform apartheid-era legislation and
to increase affordable medication access for its people through familiar provisions including parallel
importing, compulsory licensing, and generic drug substitution. The grave crisis in lack of access to
medication in South Africa cannot be overemphasized: in the case of HIV disease, more than 4.3
million South Africans are infected with HIV but less than 0.2 percent of infected people have access to
drug treatment to stabilize disease progression and extend life. Your lawsuit has tied the hands of the
South African government, making it unable to implement potentially life-saving reforms while South
African citizens die preventable deaths every day.
The Medicines Act, you claim, would unfairly infringe on the intellectual property rights of drug makers
and would cost substantial profits. In fact, the entire continent of Africa generates less than 1.3 percent
of global profits from drug sales. Clearly your concern lies not with the lives of the tens of millions of
poor people who have no access to drugs, but with protecting your unfettered access to the few in the
North who are willing to pay top dollar, no questions asked.

5571095.0291.031