Seventy percent of the world's AIDS population lives in Africa. It's a startling reminder of the disconnect between the pharmaceutical industry and Africa's poorest nations, which are dealing with the worst epidemic to beset the region in more than a century. Now, the political pressure to help suffering and dying Africans is increasing rapidly.
Drug companies are in a tough spot.
But if they were smart, they would realize that sometimes protecting shareholder value has as much to do with doing the right thing as it does with protecting drug patents. In fact, prices of some AIDS drugs are falling across Africa as many drugmakers respond to an uproar over the high cost of these medicines, but even with the industry's latest pricing moves, few people will be able to afford or use the drugs properly without greater funding and education by the industry and other outside sources. The industry could go much further in tackling Africa's AIDS crisis by allowing widespread and inexpensive licensing of these drugs to responsible manufacturers. Instead, the industry is taking the South African government to court, trying to block importation of cheap AIDS drugs in a country where the epidemic has spiraled out of control. Importing cheap and expensive versions of the same drug was legalized under a law passed by parliament in the closing months of the Mandela regime.