Edition: U.S. / Global   Published: April 20, 2001  Bowing to
mounting public pressure, the pharmaceutical industry today
dropped its legal effort to prevent South Africa from importing
cheaper anti-AIDS drugs and other medicines.  All 39 drug makers
that had sued South Africa in 1998 conceded today that a South
African law allowing the government to purchase brand-name drugs
at the lowest rates available anywhere in the world complied
with international trade agreements. During its three-year
fight, the industry had closed factories here, canceled
investments and said that health officials were intent on
destroying international treaties intended to protect drug
patents -- an issue that has created a clash with AIDS
activists. [News analysis, Page A6.]  But in ending its legal
efforts today, the companies agreed that the law could be
enforced as written, and said that they would pay the
government's legal costs. The companies that began the
negotiations that led to today's settlement were Bristol-Myers
Squib