The Treatment Action Campaign welcomes the statement below by the Competition Commission. Just over a year ago, Hazel Tau and 10 others lodged a complaint at the Competition Commission against GlaxoSmithKline and Boehringer Ingelheim for excessive pricing of their antiretroviral medicines. The Competition Commission has now decided to refer this matter to the Competition Tribunal for ajudication.

The 11 complainants are: COSATU, the TAC, CEPPWAWU, Hazel Tau, Nontsikelelo Zwedala, Sindiswa Godwana, Sue Roberts, Isaac Skosana, William Mmbara, Steve Andrews and Francois Venter. Two additional parties joined the complaint in February 2003, the AIDS Consortium and a TAC volunteer who subsequently died of AIDS in June.

For questions on the Competition Commission case, please contact Jonathan Berger on 011 717 8600 or 083 419 5779, or Fatima Hassan on 083 279 9962.

Competition Commission press release.