A strategy devised by lobby group Public Affairs Engagement (PAE) for opposing proposed patent laws has been rejected by the Innovative Pharmaceutical Association of SA (Ipasa).
This was confirmed by Ipasa chief operations officer Val Beaumont on Friday.
"Ipasa... has not engaged the consultancy PAE to lobby on intellectual property or any other matter in South Africa," he said in a statement.
The Mail & Guardian earlier reported that Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi described as "genocide" PAE's plans for a campaign against the trade and industry department's Intellectual Property Policy.
No payment
According to the newspaper, the section of the draft policy pertaining to health aimed to weaken protection for drug patents, which would drive down prices for a range of medications, including antiretrovirals and tuberculosis treatment.
Beaumont said: "PAE submitted a proposal for a campaign, which was reviewed and subsequently rejected by Ipasa members and no payment or pledge has been made in any respect".
He said Ipasa, which represents 26 pharmaceutical companies operating in South Africa, had made submissions on the policy and indicated its support for the broad objectives of the draft policy.
"A number of the recommendations outlined in the draft national policy relating to health are already possible through existing legislation... Ipasa has raised questions in the submission on how such existing legislation will be integrated under the proposed policy framework."
Plan for genocide
The Mail & Guardian reported on Friday that the PAE's strategy sought to direct the nature of public discourse around the policy through a massive public relations exercise directed from outside the country.
The PAE plan intended to send the message that the policy could threaten investment and have negative economic and social consequences.
Motsoaledi was angered by the PAE's strategy, outlined in a document seen by the newspaper and his department.
"This document can sentence many South Africans to death," he was quoted as saying.
"That is no exaggeration. This is a plan for genocide."
New infections
Speaking at an event in Durban later on Friday, Motsoaledi did not back down from comments he made to the M&G.
"If drugs become very expensive as this lobby is trying to do, that is not going to be achievable."
He was speaking at the handing over of a report by UNAids that revealed that the death rate, as well as the rates of new infections for HIV/Aids in South Africa had fallen.
He said the fact that the government had brought down the price of antiretroviral drugs had helped it prevent deaths by increasing the number of people receiving ARV treatment. The government aimed to roll out ARV treatment to 4.6 million people by 2016.
Motsoaledi said the explosion of non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure would also be affected by attempts to drive up prices.
"If they become too expensive, which country is going to be able afford that? A sophisticated method of doing that is to take treatment away from people by making it unreachable. It's the same thing as biological warfare. It's tantamount to genocide.
"That is why I exploded in anger. I want to defend and protect the people of this country," he said.
Here's the point. IP only has value as far as people are prepared to honour it. "Owners" of IP will play up the property rights angle for all it's worth but at the end of the day intellectual property is only a concept. An idea is copied and propagated as soon as someone else hears that idea. Anything that can be digitised is similarly prone to dissemination. Basically once and idea is out there you'd have to be a retard to not try and copy it. If that idea means the difference between life and death or even just quality of life to someone they'd have to be suicidal or masochistic not to copy it. In fact, once you have the means to copy and idea you would have to hate yourself not to copy it if it meant the difference between suffering without the benefits of said idea or simply copying it and improving your life. The Chinese (please excuse my insensitivity with the attempt at approximation of the Chinese accent for humorous purposes) have quote rationally decided to actively ignore the self-defeating (for the human race) concept of intellectual property.
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