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THE UNAIDS/PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY INITIATIVE
Updated 12/23/00
UPDATE:
Facts on the Initiative | Position Paper (.pdf) | Position Paper (.html)
SUMMARY:
AIDS activist, humanitarian, and public health organizations reacted to the announcement with deep skepticism and many unanswered questions . Seven months after the announcement, the initiative as executed by UNAIDS and the pharmaceutical industry has not made substantial progress in achieving the goal of broad, sustainable access to HIV medication in developing countries. Instead, many of the same deadly flaws of the UNAIDS pilot project on antiretroviral drug access will be repeated.
Only Senegal has concluded negotiations with participating drug companies; Senegal¹s deal, seven months in coming, will only provide anti-HIV medication to an estimated one per cent of its infected population once implemented .
In contrast, since the UNAIDS announcement in May, Brazil has confirmed the success of its national provision of combination antiretroviral therapy: broad access to affordable generic antiretroviral medication has resulted in a drop in AIDS related mortality by at least 50 per cent, a $442 million savings in hospitalization fees.
THE FACTS AND FLAWS OF THE DRUG DONATION INITIATIVE:
Health Gap Coalition position paper "Questioning the UNAIDS/Pharmaceutical Industry Initiative: Seven months and counting. . ." is presented at the UNAIDS PCB meeting in Rio. (13 December 2000).
In May 2000 UNAIDS announced a HIV drug price reduction initiative in partnership with major multinational drug companies. The announcement, regarded with much fanfare by the American media, promised "slashed drug prices" and followed mounting international criticism of the global pricing strategies of the pharmaceutical industry.
The pharmaceutical industry is explicitly driven to protect its intellectual property, and to protect and increase its profits. In the midst of a devastating global health crisis, these interests must not be allowed to power efforts by UNAIDS to increase affordable drug access.
However the initiative as currently structured is based in cumbersome, non-transparent and unbalanced negotiations between developing countries and extraordinarily wealthy pharmaceutical companies on a country-by-county basis. Drug companies cannot be expected to negotiate in good faith with poor countries. UNAIDS refuses to provide poor countries with the leverage they need in order to obtain the deepest possible price reductions, in the most expedited fashion. UNAIDS must insist that participating drug companies comply with uniform price reductions from the outset, for all drugs and for all poor countries that wish to participate in the initiative.
2. Generic HIV drug manufacturers must not be shut out of the initiative.
UNAIDS must publicly endorse the importance of partnerships with generic manufacturers, as it has readily endorsed the involvement of the multinational drug companies. Big Pharma is not pleased by the price reductions created by competition from generic producers around the world. UNAIDS drug access policies are currently being structured, by and large, in response to Big Pharma¹s displeasure. Health GAP is outraged by reports that generic manufacturers are being kept from negotiating drug price reductions as part of the UNAIDS initiative.
3. Without reform from UNAIDS, the gravest defects of the UNAIDS pilot project on antiretroviral drug access will be repeated.
4. The same drug companies promising increased access through the UNAIDS initiative are preventing life-extending medications from reaching people with AIDS in the developing world.
In Ghana, importation of generic, low cost AZT/3TC from India¹s Cipla, Inc. has been squelched by Glaxo Wellcome¹s bogus claim of "patent infringement." Recent reports indicate Glaxo Wellcome¹s patent claims to AZT/3TC in Ghana are nonexistent; but their actions against Cipla and the Ghanaian drug distributor have halted drug distribution and are resulting in needless death.
Meanwhile, Glaxo Wellcome continues hypocritical negotiations to provide brand-name Combivir at reduced cost to countries participating in the UNAIDS initiative. UNAIDS must insist that Glaxo Wellcome, as a partner in the access initiative, immediately abandon its lawsuit against Cipla, Inc. and assure the Healthcare, Inc, the Ghanaian distributor, that it can distribute generic AZT/3TC without retaliation.
5. UNAIDS is not advising countries entering industry negotiations against adopting overly restrictive domestic patent laws.
UNAIDS must state that the public health interests of developing countries are not served by adopting laws above and beyond that which is dictated by relevant international agreements. UNAIDS must proactively support countries in efforts to obtain model, "best practice" domestic intellectual property legislation, and must proactively advise and support countries in enacting access strategies such as manufacture and importation of generics, and compulsory licensing.
6. UNAIDS must act on the criticisms of people with AIDS in the Third World who have spoken out in disappointment against the UNAIDS initiative and who are being shut out of negotiations.
Inexcusably, the current non-transparent structure of the UNAIDS initiative excludes people with AIDS while favoring the pharmaceutical industry.
http://www.aidsinfonyc.org/tag/activism/brazil.html
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