News from Africa

Kenya's Parliament Passes AIDS Drugs Bill

(12 June 2001)

NAIROBI (Reuters) - The Kenyan parliament on Tuesday passed a controversial bill opposed by the global pharmaceutical industry that will allow the east African country to import and manufacture cheap medicines.
MPs voted unanimously to approve the Industrial Properties Bill 2001, effectively loosening the pharmaceutical giants' hold on much-prized patent rights for a variety of medicines, including antiretroviral AIDS (news - web sites) drugs.
AIDS activists say the bill will allow more of Kenya's 2.2 million HIV (news - web sites)-positive population access to the drugs, which have helped reduce AIDS deaths in the West by 75 percent.
Kenya was the second African country to pass such a bill. The drugs industry was badly bruised in South Africa in April when it abandoned a court case seeking to challenge a similar law.
"It's a big day, a very big day,'' Public Health Minister Sam Ongeri told Reuters. "Kenyans can now smile as they  have access to cheaper but quality drugs.''
However, it will take some time before the cheaper medicines can be imported to Kenya in bulk.
The bill still has to go for a third reading in Kenya's parliament when minor amendments can be discussed but the overall tone of the legislation cannot be changed. It then has to receive presidential assent.
Under the bill, Kenya will give pharmaceutical firms six months notice if it wishes to license other companies to import or produce generic drugs for which the multinationals hold patent rights.
The drugs industry fears the bill could cause a domino effect across the rest of the world's poorest continent, where 25.3 million people are infected with the virus, cutting profits it says are essential for research into new medicines.
But Ongeri said he thought it would be "unwise'' if the drugs industry tried to challenge the bill in the Kenyan courts. "It wouldn't fit in with the climate or mood of the nation,'' he said.