Ed O'Loughlin reports from Johannesburg. Starting next month, several community groups in the black Cape Town suburb of Khayelitsha will have a new and difficult task. The rest will not. Unless, that is, the price of drugs drops in the meantime.
Price is almost irrelevant.
You first need political will and commitment, then you need a plan. And only as a last resort do you look at the drugs. This week in Pretoria the PMA, acting on behalf of 39 multinational drug companies, opened a landmark legal case to prevent the South African Government from allowing the importation or local manufacture of cheaper versions of the companies' patented drugs. Adjourned after only two days for further preparations, the case has nevertheless generated great international interest. Foreign journalists thronged to the courtroom in Pretoria on Monday and Tuesday.