Election Section

PRETORIA, South Africa — Pharmaceutical giants entered settlement talks with the government Wednesday, a sign they are dropping their fight against a law that could provide cheap copies of AIDS drugs to millions of South Africans. 

The suit, postponed until Thursday as the discussions continued, has deeply embarrassed the drug companies since it began six weeks ago. Many have responded by drastically cutting prices on their own. 

However, human rights groups say those prices would fall even further in the face of generic competition. 

An official with one of the pharmaceutical companies said the suit “had largely been resolved” after the South African government reached an agreement with several of the largest companies involved. 

Those companies spent much of the day convincing the remainder of the 39 companies involved in the suit to accept the agreement, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

Only technical issues, including who will pay court costs, remained to be worked out, the official said. 

International human rights groups and AIDS activists have waged a global public relations offensive against the suit, which they see as an obstacle to securing medication for the nearly 26 million people in Africa infected with HIV. 

As the case resumed Wednesday morning after a six-week postponement, Stephanus Cilliers, a lawyer for the drug companies, asked for a four-hour recess “in hopes that certain discussions that are going on will obviate the need for further ... proceedings.” 

When court reconvened at 2 p.m., he was granted a recess until Thursday morning so discussions could continue. 

Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang declined to comment on the negotiations as she left the courtroom, which was filled to standing-room capacity with journalists, AIDS activists and union members expecting a settlement. 

The pharmaceutical companies had argued that the South African law, which was never implemented, was too broad and unfairly targeted drug manufacturers. 

The government, AIDS activists and human rights groups say the drug companies are trying to wring profits out of a public health nightmare that threatens to devastate South Africa and dozens of other poor countries. 

The situation has changed drastically since the suit was filed more than three years ago. At that time, the European Union and the United States backed the drug companies and the case had almost no impact on the public’s view of the drug companies. 

Since then, however, the U.S. government and the European Union withdrew their support for the case, and the pharmaceutical companies have suffered a public relations battering. 

“The pressure was just too much for them not to respond to,” said Ellen ’t Hoen, an official with Medicins Sans Frontieres. 

Zachie Achmat, chairman of the Treatment Action Campaign, a local AIDS activists’ group that had filed a brief in support of the government demanded the companies drop the suit immediately, and appealed to the government not to compromise in the talks. 

“There’s nothing to discuss. The companies must simply withdraw from the case,” he said. “We ask the government to stand fully by the legislation, not to give an inch, because the law is on their side, the Constitution is on their side, international law is on their side.”