SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa and Namibia have rejected an offer of the us to provide financial assistance for purchasing anti- aids drugs. A total of us $1 billion was offered by the us Export-Import Bank to 24 sub-Saharan countries in annual loans. Bank officials said that till now none of the countries have accepted the offer. According to Namibia, they needed affordable drugs and not loans that would burden their economies. Officials of the Southern African Development Community, a representative body of 14 countries of Africa, said that they will try to convince us drug companies to reduce the prices of medicines and also to support countries that are disregarding patents and producing generic drugs more cheaply. "Making drugs affordable is the solution to the problem, rather than offering loans that have an interest obligation attached to them," said Thuthula Balfour, director of the health unit of the Southern African Development Community.

Some officials of the us government had expressed their doubts regarding the benefits of the financial assistance programme, bank authorities acknowledged. In May, 2000 the Clinton administration had angered the pharmaceutical industry by issuing an order which stated that the government would not take action against any African country found guilty of violating us patent laws. The bank has made the offer at a time when the North is seeking to forgo as much as us $100 billion of the debt held by the developing countries. The unaids, a un agency, dealing with aids has already started negotiating with five drug companies to bring down the prices of medicines supplied to poor countries.

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