Globalization, pharmaceutical pricing, and South African health policy: Managing confrontation with US firms and politicians
Globalization, pharmaceutical pricing, and South African health policy: Managing confrontation with US firms and politicians
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DOI：
10.2190/4ma6-53e3-le1x-c1yy
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发表时间：
1999-01-01
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Bond, P
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bond, P
自1994年南非民主制度的出现和卫生部门改革的承诺以来，纳尔逊曼德拉总统的非洲人国民大会政府和美国制药商之间的一场非同寻常的毒品战争在1998年至1999年在全球范围内展开。在南非通过旨在降低药品价格的立法后的几个月内，美国政府迅速施加强大的压力，废除了一项允许进口仿制药替代品和强制许可的条款。这不仅关系到当地对专利法和世界贸易组织知识产权贸易规则的解释，而且关系到发展中国家与制药业之间的国际权力关系。在回顾正在进行的辩论，本文认为后种族隔离的公共卫生政策，美国政府的压力，改变法律，制药行业的利益和联系，美国政府，并评估各种阻力，美国企业和政府的行为。因此，这一案件引起了人们对当代帝国主义的担忧，这已经不是第一次了（“全球化”），利润动机作为重要药品的激励因素的作用，事实上，在一个出价高的国际制药公司有足够的影响力让副总统阿尔戈尔难堪的国家，“民主”的深度也是如此。南非和其他发展中国家数百万基本药物消费者的死亡利益。
Brewing since the advent of South African democracy in 1994 and promises of health sector transformation, an extraordinary drug war between President Nelson Mandela's African National Congress government and U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturers took on global proportions in 1998-1999. Within months of the passage of South African legislation aimed at lowering drug prices, the U.S. government quickly applied powerful pressure points to repeal a clause allowing potential importation of generic substitutes and imposition of compulsory licensing. At stake were not only local interpretations of patent law and World Trade Organization rules on Trade in Intellectual Property, but international power relations between developing countries and the pharmaceutical industry. In reviewing the ongoing debate, this article considers post-apartheid public health policy, U.S. government pressure to change the law, and pharmaceutical industry interests and links to the U.S. government, and evaluates various kinds of resistance to U.S. corporate and government behavior. The case thus raises-not for the first time-concerns about contemporary imperialism ("globalization"), the role of the profit motive as an incentive in vital pharmaceutical products, and indeed the depth of "democracy" in a country where high-bidding international drug firms have sufficient clout to embarrass Vice President Al Gore by pining him against the life-and-death interests of millions of consumers of essential drugs in South Africa and other developing countries.