JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Nearly every major pharmaceutical company in the world is suing the government of South Africa in a case viewed as a landmark in the battle to get cheap AIDS medication to many of the world's poorest countries.
The more than three dozen companies argue that a 1997 South African law allowing the government to import or produce cheap, generic versions of patented drugs is too broad and unfairly targets drug manufacturers.
They plan to ask the Pretoria High Court to invalidate the law in hearings beginning Monday.
The government, AIDS activists and international 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 impoverished countries.
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