10 APRIL 2001

KOFI ANNAN SIDES WITH THE POWERFUL

On March 6, the newspaper Le Monde announced through its correspondent to the United Nations, that the UN was launching a campaign in favor of generic medicines.

The UN Secretary General has decided to launch a highly political campaign in favor of access to generic HIV/AIDS medicines in the South. According to persons close to Kofi Annan, he intends to make the best of the offer, released last January, by the Indian drug company CIPLA to manufacture generic medicines to be distributed at reduced prices to HIV-positive people, 90% of which live in developing countries. The Secretary General now intends to grant absolute priority to the question of access to drugs and to take on the moral and political leadership of this fight against AIDS.

A month later, after meeting with the 6 main drug companies, the United Nations Secretary General sings a different song : "Encouraging the active participation of all partners in the fight against AIDS has become my personal priority," said Kofi Annan in a statement released today. "The epidemic is the greatest public health challenge of our times and we must harness the expertise of all sectors of society. The pharmaceutical industry is playing a crucial role. We need to combine incentive for research with access to medication for the poor. Intellectual property protection is key to bringing forward new medicines, vaccines and diagnostics urgently needed for the health of the world's poorest people.

"The UN fully supports the TRIPS agreement - including the safeguards incorporated within it. However, the solution does not lie with the pharmaceutical companies alone. I am calling for a major mobilization - of political will and significant additional funding - to enable a dramatic leap forward in prevention, education, care and treatment."

For those who know how to read diplomat speeches, declaration constitutes a bold turn-around. Like the Director of the World Health Organisation - who recently chose to withdraw WHO's support to the South African government against the 39 pharmaceutical corporations which are suing Pretoria, Kofi Annan has just turned his coat.

At the same moment, the WHO and the WTO were meeting discreetly in Norway to negotiate with the same companies a few one-off agreements for differential pricing and voluntary licensing, thus preparing to put a final word to the emerging process of questioning international patent law. This law, the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property (known as TRIPS) have though been the subject of a report by the United Nations Human Rights Commission, which concluded that this Agreement could be incompatible with basic human rights.

ACT UP-Paris is willing to take the UN Secretary General on his word. Because we want to believe in his being committed for access to generic medicines, because we still hope that the highest dignitary of the UN puts himself above industrial circles and their commercial interests, because we do not want to believe that he could so fast dismiss the call of over thirty million human beings infected with the virus, we solemnly invite him to dispel our fears before an assembly which represents these masses fighting for the same end, by supporting with his personal attendance the highly symbolic Summit for Access to Generic HIV/aids Medicines, May 3-7, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Press contact

Marie de Cenival : 33 495 08 29 94
Julien Devemy : 33 149 29 44 75
Sylvain Coudret
Planet Africa
Commission Nord/Sud
Act Up-Paris

E-mail: planetafrica@asso.globenet.org

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