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Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2001 23:43:12 EST
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Subject: [AfricaMatters] Blocking AIDS Treatment
APIC Note: Blocking AIDS Treatment
Almost none of the more than 25 million Africans living with HIV/AIDS
have access to currently available drug treatment for AIDS, which
now prolongs life for most people with AIDS in developed countries.
Until last year, the dominant perspective was simply to ignore this
fact, silently writing off the deaths, while pharmaceutical
companies raked in profits from sales in the developed worlds and
the U.S. led an aggressive fight for ever-expanded protection for
the companies' patent rights.
Now the momentum to challenge this dismissal is growing rapidly,
building on the emphasis on the right to treatment as well as
prevention at the international conference on AIDS in Durban and
the African Development Forum in Addis Ababa last year. The media
reflect significant shifts in viewpoint, as illustrated by the
frontpage January 28 New York Times Magazine article ('How to Solve
the World's AIDS Crisis') by Tina Rosenberg citing Brazil's example
as proof that 'Patent laws are malleable. Patients are educable.
Drug companies are vincible. The world's AIDS crisis is solvable.'
See
http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20010128mag-aids.html
Stephen Lewis, former deputy executive director of UNICEF, wrote in
the Globe and Mail (January 26, 2001) that 'there are generic drugs
from India to treat the majority of HIV-positive Africans for $350
per person per year. If we had the political will, there is no
question that we have the money. Then why isn't it being done?
And because it's not being done, why doesn't it amount to murder?
Mass murder.'
(http://www.globeandmail.ca/gam/Commentary/20010126/COLEWIS.htm)
Yet the Bush administration and drug companies are responding by
escalating the attacks against efforts to make treatment accessible
in South Africa, Brazil and other countries, even while denying
that their actions will have that effect. The attacks are
proceeding on several fronts, including the courts in South Africa,
the review of the May 2000 Clinton executive order, and an attack
through the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Brazil's successful
use of generic drugs to counter AIDS.
Below several relevant documents:
(1) Sign-on letter initiated by the Health Gap Coalition calling
for pharmaceutical companies to withdraw their suit against South
Africa scheduled to go to court next month. Executive Director
Salih Booker has endorsed the letter on behalf of APIC, the Africa
Fund and the American Committee on Africa.
(2) Background note from the The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
and a note from the Progressive Caucus in the House of
Representatives, concerning the Bush administration decision to
review the May 2000 Clinton executive order which mandated greater
'flexibility' on compulsory licensing and parallel imports.
(3) Action alert from ACT UP Paris calling for international
agencies to speak out against the U.S. request to the WTO, and for
the Bush Administration to withdraw the attack on Brazilian
legislation.
For additional details please refer to the web sites noted in the
documents, as well as a wider range of sources on APIC's web site
at http://www.africapolicy.org/action/health.htm
Two substantive background articles on compulsory licensing and
parallel importing are:
Compulsory Licensing and Parallel Importing (July 1999)
http://www.icaso.org/compulsory_english.htm
Brazil: What Went Right? (December 2000)
http://www.thebody.com/tag/dec00/brazil.html
Regular updates and discussion on treatment access can also be
found at:
http://www.hivnet.ch:8000/topics/treatment-access
***************************************************************
Stop Big Pharma's lawsuit against South Africa
Health GAP Coalition
http://www.healthgap.org, http://www.globaltreatmentaccess.org
Treatment Action Group
http://www.treatmentactiongroup.org
For more information: [log in to unmask]
Please review this important sign-on letter and send individual
and organizational endorsements to [log in to unmask]
[The initial deadline for signatories for this letter was Feb 2,
but additional signatories may still be accepted. Check the
Health Gap website for updates on signatories. South Africa's
Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has called for a global week of
action beginning with the March 5 court date for the case in
South Africa.]
Consult the TAC website (http://www.tac.org.za), as well as the
websites above, for news about upcoming events in the US and
abroad to protest multinational drug company price-gouging and
US government collusion in time for the March 5 court date in
South Africa.
-----------------------------------------------------------
January 29 2001
Dear [Plaintiff],
[The list of plaintiffs can be found at:
http://www.cptech.org/ip/health/sa/pharmasuit.html]
We the undersigned are members of the community of HIV/AIDS
treatment activists. You are receiving this letter because you
are suing the government of South Africa in an effort to
maintain high prices for patented pharmaceuticals, which will
prevent millions of people from obtaining life extending
treatment (Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of South
Africa versus the President of South Africa, case no. 4183/98).
As you know, oral arguments on this case will begin March 5,
2001 before the High Court in Pretoria. This three-year
lawsuit, a protracted effort to derail implementation of South
African Medicines and Related Substances Control Act ("the
Medicines Act"), is having a deadly impact on South African
people and citizens of poor countries around the world.
Therefore we demand you immediately remove yourself as a
plaintiff from this lawsuit.
The Medicines Act is an effort by the South Africa government to
reform apartheid-era legislation and to increase affordable
medication access for its people through familiar provisions
including parallel importing, compulsory licensing, and generic
drug substitution. The grave crisis in lack of access to
medication in South Africa cannot be overemphasized: in the
case of HIV disease, more than 4.3 million South Africans are
infected with HIV but less than 0.2 percent of infected people
have access to drug treatment to stabilize disease progression
and extend life. Your lawsuit has tied the hands of the South
African government, making it unable to implement potentially
life-saving reforms while South African citizens die preventable
deaths every day.
The Medicines Act, you claim, would unfairly infringe on the
intellectual property rights of drug makers and would cost
substantial profits. In fact, the entire continent of Africa
generates less than 1.3 percent of global profits from drug
sales. Clearly your concern lies not with the lives of the tens
of millions of poor people who have no access to drugs, but with
protecting your unfettered access to the few in the North who
are willing to pay top dollar, no questions asked.
While a slim minority of people with HIV in wealthy countries
reap the life extending benefits of overpriced HIV medications,
90 percent of the world's 36 million people with HIV have
absolutely no hope of anything beyond a death sentence,
including virtually all of the 4.3 million people with HIV
living in South Africa. But companies - including yours - claim
they are doing enough to increase HIV drug access for the tens
of millions of people who have no access to HIV treatment.
For example, the much-hyped UN/drug company HIV medication price
reduction initiative, touted by industry as a far reaching,
innovative program, has been roundly criticized as moving too
slowly, subjecting individual countries to prolonged imbalanced
negotiations, and having an unacceptably narrow impact. You and
the other 41 plaintiffs in this case are preventing South Africa
from implementing its domestic plan to end inequity in
medication access. Battling the extraordinary devastation
wreaked by the AIDS crisis requires many strategies and modes of
attack - not only industry-controlled charity programs.
We do not claim that affordable drugs are a panacea in the fight
to end the global AIDS crisis. But truly affordable medication
is the foundation of any meaningful effort that will actually
save lives.
The shameful three-year battle by your company and the other
plaintiffs is a wholehearted effort to ensure that medication is
denied to those who need it most. This lawsuit stands squarely in
the path of South Africans, as well as millions from other
countries who are closly watching this precendent-setting case
and who are desperately seeking access to life extending,
affordable medication. You have a choice: unless you take
action and remove yourself from the lawsuit, you will be known
forever as the company who sued to prevent the South African
government from daring to increase the availability of
life-extending medication for its citizens. Your lawsuit
directly threatens the lives of millions. We therefore call on
you to withdraw from the PMA of South Africa lawsuit without
further delay.
Sincerely,
[For list of signatories, see http://www.healthgap.org]
cc: The Honorable Thabo Mbeki, President, Republic of South
Africa; Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Minister of Health, Republic
of South Africa; Zackie Achmat, Chairperson, Treatment Action
Campaign; The Honorable Kofi Annan, Secretary General, United
Nations; James Wolfensohn, President, The World Bank; Dr. Gro
Harlem Brundtland, Secretary General, World Health Organization;
Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director, UNAIDS; The Honorable Colin
Powell, Secretary of State, USA; Robert Zoellick, United State
Trade Representative-Designate; Congressional Black Caucus
****************************************************************
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
http://report.kff.org/hivaids
One Page Background on Africa Aids Drugs and Clinton Executive
Order
1/23/2001 Bush Reviewing Executive Order Allowing International
Importation of Generic HIV/AIDS Drugs President Bush may reverse
former President Clinton's executive order that allows
sub-Saharan African governments to import generic versions of
HIV/AIDS medications from other countries where the drugs are
manufactured while still under U.S. patent, Bloomberg
News/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. According to drug companies
such as GlaxoSmithKline, the "world's largest producer of AIDS
drugs," as well as Merck & Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and
Roche Pharmaceuticals, the executive order, signed by Clinton in
May, "changed the way their drugs are priced" (Rosenkrantz,
Bloomberg News/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1/22). According to the
order, the United States "shall not seek, through negotiation or
otherwise, the revocation or revision of any intellectual
property law or policy" of sub-Saharan African countries provided
that they promote "access to HIV/AIDS pharmaceuticals or medical
technologies for affected populations in that country." In
essence, the order holds African countries to the "less stringent
standard of a World Trade Organization agreement on intellectual
property protection," instead of U.S. trade laws concerning
patents (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 5/11/00).
From 5/11/2000 AFRICA TRADE BILL: Clinton Issues Executive Order
Relaxing Intellectual Property Rights Almost one week after
lawmakers stripped Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Russell
Feingold's (D- Wis.) compulsory licensing and parallel importing
provision from the African-Caribbean Basin Initiative trade bill,
President Clinton yesterday signed an executive order affording
sub-Saharan governments the "flexibility to bring life-saving
drugs and medical technologies to affected populations" (Clinton
letter text, 5/10). According to the order, the United States
"shall not seek, through negotiation or otherwise, the revocation
or revision of any intellectual property law or policy" of
sub-Saharan African countries provided that they that promote
"access to HIV/AIDS pharmaceuticals or medical technologies for
affected populations in that country" (Executive Order text,
5/10). U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said, "Given
the devastating impact of AIDS, the United States will not
require or negotiate restrictive rules in the intellectual
property rights area" (Abrams, AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/11).
Thus, the United States will not invoke U.S. trade laws
concerning patents, but instead will hold sub-Saharan countries
"to the less stringent standard of a World Trade Organization
agreement on intellectual property protection." The United States
negotiated a similar deal with South Africa last year (Burgess,
Washington Post, 5/11). The order also states that the United
States will "encourage sub-Saharan African nations to take steps
to address the underlying causes of the HIV/AIDS crisis and that
the United States should work with individual countries to assist
them in developing effective public-education campaigns"
(AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/11).
AIDS activists praised the president's action, while the
pharmaceutical industry and some lawmakers criticized it. Jeff
Jacobs, director of governmental affairs for AIDS Action, said,
"With the stroke of his pen, Bill Clinton has signaled that the
country is seriously engaged in the global war on AIDS. America
can and should do more, but this is a bold, important first step"
(AIDS Action release, 5/10). Paul Davis of ACT-UP Philadelphia
also lauded the president, but "faulted [the order] for only
covering sub-Saharan Africa and AIDS drugs." He said, "There are
more killers than HIV/AIDS and lots of folks who have AIDS in
other countries." But Alan Holmer, president of the
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said that
the move sets "an undesirable and inappropriate precedent, by
adopting a discriminatory approach to intellectual property laws,
and focusing exclusively on pharmaceuticals." Holmer added that
pharmaceutical companies "continue to play an essential role in
pioneering applied research and development, our best hope of
winning the war against AIDS. Strong intellectual property
protection is the only way to encourage this research"
(Washington Post, 5/11). Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott
(R-Miss.) also indicated his disapproval of the plan, saying,
"There seems to be a pattern now of [Clinton] doing executive
orders that exceed what he should be doing. That should be done
legislatively. He doesn't make the laws. And so I would hope that
he would be careful about doing that" (Lewis, New York Times,
5/11). Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report
****************************************************************
PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS
Dennis Kucinich, Chairman
http://progressive.house.gov
January 23, 2001
TOPIC: Bush Examining Revocation of Executive Order Providing
Low-Priced AIDS Drugs to Africa
SUMMARY: News reports today confirm that on his third day in
office, President Bush is already exploring using his office to
do the bidding of one of his biggest corporate backers: the
pharmaceutical industry. Specifically, reports confirm that Bush
"may reverse former President Clinton's executive order that
allows sub-Saharan African governments to import [lower-priced]
generic versions of HIV/AIDS medications from other countries."
In 1999, progressives supported an amendment that would have
cemented this into law, but it was defeated by the drug industry
and its allies in the GOP leadership.
David J. Sirota Communications Director Rep. Bernie Sanders
(202.225.4115)
For a sample press release, see http://progressive.house.gov
****************************************************************
ACT UP-PARIS PRESS RELEASE
Friday, February 2, 2001
Press Contact:
Julien Devemy / Sylvain Coudret - (33) 01 49 29 44 75
Marie de Cenival - 04 95 08 29 94
The WTO Menaces the Survival of 100,000 People with AIDS
(Geneva) Yesterday at 10:00 am local time, the World Trade
Organization received a request from the United States and
established an arbitration panel to investigate the conformity of
a Brazilian intellectual property law to WTO rules.
The Bush administration views this law, which allows 100,000
people with HIV/AIDS to survive because of access to generic
antiviral drugs, as a threat to US pharmaceutical company
patents.
The measure has permitted Brazil to duplicate and produce seven
antiviral brand-name AIDS drugs since 1996 and distribute them
free of charge to sick Brazilians at a cost ten times less than
the price proposed by American drug companies. In conformance
with "TRIPS" intellectual property provisions, the law stipulates
exceptions to patent rights in rare cases. In a public health
emergency, the measure allows production of medicines normally
protected by a license, without the authorization of the patent
holder. Protected by this exemplary legislation, Brazil can
pursue its policy of caring for people suffering from HIV/AIDS
free of charge. It could extends its production of AIDS drugs to
protease inhibitors, the new HIV drugs that, when added to
three-drug regimens, are extremely effective in reducing the
amount of virus in the body and improving overall health.
The lives of more than 100,000 Brazilians, and millions to come
who could benefit from Brazil's export capacity or technology
transfer, are held in the balance by the discussions at the World
Trade Organization.
Following an appeal by more than one hundred Brazilian activist
NGOs, ACT UP-Paris put the WTO and its experts on notice that
they must resist unprecedented pressure from multinational drug
companies. The case of Brazil will set an important legal
precedent.
ACT UP-Paris condemns the intense pressure of multinational drug
companies on the US government, bought at the cost of millions of
dollars: these multinational drug companies spent $230m in
campaign contributions to help elect a US president who would
protect their interests.
ACT UP-Paris condemns the murderous pressure that the Bush
administration has brought to bear on the World Trade
Organization, whose laws have been dictated by the same interests
that are endangering the lives of tens of thousands people.
ACT UP-Paris calls on the leaders of the principal international
organizations charged with world health policy - ONUSIDA
(UNAIDS), OMS (WHO), UNICEF, PNUD (UNDP), - to declare that they
are in favor of protecting Brazil's patent law, and the Bush
administration to withdraw its complaint.
Marie de Cenival Act Up-Paris Commission Nord/Sud tel (33) 04 95
08 29 94 fax (33) 01 48 06 16 74 [log in to unmask]
************************************************************
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the
Africa Policy Information Center (APIC). APIC provides accessible
information and analysis in order to promote U.S. and
international policies toward Africa that advance economic,
political and social justice and the full spectrum of human
rights.
Documents previously distributed, as well as a wide range of
additional information, are also available on the Web at:
http://www.africapolicy.org
To be added to or dropped from the distribution list write to
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please contact directly the source mentioned in the posting.
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E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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