In an interesting turn of events in the MNCs' campaign against Indian generic drugs in African countries, a group of people living with AIDS, supported by several NGOs, have challenged the Anti-Counterfeit Act in Kenya which, they say, will deny them access to life-saving drugs.

The Anti-Counterfeit Act was passed in Kenya in December 2008 but has not been enacted so far. The NGOs and the common people are apprehensive that once the law is enacted, generic drugs will be deemed counterfeit, putting thousands of HIV patients at risk as they can only afford generic medicines because they cost up to 90 per cent less than the originals.

Most of the Kenya's more than 1.4 million people living with HIV and AIDS rely mostly on first-line generic anti-retroviral drugs, 3TC (lamivudine), AZT (Zidovudine) and NVP (Nevirapine). And most of these generic drugs are imported from other countries, including India. If the Act is enacted, they would be denied the highest attainable right to life as the cost of patented drugs marketed by MNCs might be beyond their reach, the NGOs said.

In suit papers filed through lawyer David Majanja, the group raised concern at particular sections of the Act which they believe will endanger their well-being. They say Sections 2, 32 and 34 will deny them access to drugs necessary for the fulfilment of the quality of life they are guaranteed under the Constitution.

Meanwhile, sources said that the African governments are under pressure from MNCs to act against generic drugs. Under the MNCs pressure, Kenya and Uganda have recently come out with draft Bills under which even generic drugs will be classified as counterfeit drugs. Some other countries are also following suit in Africa. This law even recognizes intellectual property (like patents) from other countries. This means that Kenyans would, by this Act, be required to comply with laws of other countries for which they are not citizens. For example, tenofovir is not patented in Kenya. However by this Act, the patent holder could actually stop its generic equivalent from entering into the Kenyan market.