COMPANIES FALLING BEHIND ON LICENSE AGREEMENTS, GROUP SAYS

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a South African organization, has issued a statement saying that its settlement agreements with drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Boehringer Ingelheim to license generic antiretrovirals are unaffected by a recent court ruling amending another agreement involving the companies.

South Africa's Competition Appeal Court, a high court for enforcing competition law, has ruled to amend a settlement agreement reached between the Competition Commission and GSK. In 2003 GSK agreed to issue licenses to at least four generic drug companies to produce or import generic zidovudine and lamivudine, both HIV drugs. The Competition Commission complained about the companies' pricing of their drugs. The commission and the companies reached an agreement, and the prices of these drugs have fallen as a result, according to TAC.

The ruling has no impact on the separate but similar settlement agreements involving TAC and GSK and Boehringer Ingelheim over the HIV drug nevirapine. According to TAC, so far only two companies -- Aspen Pharmacare and Cipla-Medpro -- have successfully received licenses to produce generic nevirapine, whereas GSK and Boehringer Ingelheim had agreed to license the drug to several firms.