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On the surface this is fine, but application will require scrutiny, for US officials frequently speak of respecting intellectual property rights in a manner that treats compulsory licensing and parallel imports as exceptions to TRIPS, not as part and parcel of it. And the term “quality” is also worrisome, not of course because we don’t want quality drugs, but because the term is frequently used in US and pharmaceutical circles to reject generics.
What is needed for the Fund, and for global responses to AIDS generally, is a commitment to affordable access to quality medicines, whether they come from generic Cipla or patented Merck, secured by whatever legitimate means a nation wishes to undertake.
Ask your Members of Congress and the President to support a US policy that:
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Clearly places the lives of people suffering from AIDS ahead of patents and profits
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Reveals an openness to review TRIPS and a willingness to respond sympathetically to African concerns about TRIPS
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Affirms the interrelatedness of prevention and treatment programs to combat HIV/AIDS
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Supports African access to medications from reliable global sources on a best-price basis
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Encourages affordable access to medicines that include but are not exclusive to anti-retrovirals, so that drugs for treatment of opportunistic infections and pain will also be affordable and available
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Provides substantial funding appropriations to the Global Fund and through bilateral initiatives that permit and encourage expenditure on drugs
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Urges African governments especially to provide the comparatively simple drug therapies for mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS; and
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As a priority, seeks to enhance health infrastructure in Africa so that treatment can become more widely available in the shortest time possible.
These are matters of urgency, for some 6,000 African men, women and children die every day from AIDS-related causes – a number likely to reach 13,000 deaths per day by 2010. But beyond this stunning human tragedy, in the aftermath of September 11th the US needs to present to the world something other than an agenda designed to assure that the US is protected from the reality of insecurity and vulnerability that most of the world – certainly most of Africa – experiences every day. At some point, and some point soon, US efforts to deal with its own vulnerabilities need to be balanced by efforts to deal with the struggles of people living in poverty and grave crisis around the world. Helping Africa to secure medicine is a good place to start.
