WUNRN

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2011/jul/12/aids-pharmaceuticals-industry/print 

FULL ARTICLE IN PART 2 OF THIS RELEASE.

 

HIV/AIDS-POOR COUNTRIES TO BENEFIT FROM PATENT DRUGS AGREEMENT

 

Medicines Patent Pool agreement with Gilead Sciences allows Indian generics companies to make cheap copies of some of the best Aids drugs......

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WUNRN

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http://www.worldywca.org/YWCA-News/World-YWCA-and-Member-Associations-News/Where-is-the-money-for-women-s-rights-and-HIV

 

WHERE IS THE MONEY FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS & HIV/AIDS?

 

World YWCA - 30/11/2010

 Where is the money for women’s rights and HIV?

World YWCA, World AIDS Campaign and Women Won’t Wait Campaign

World AIDS Day Statement

Although there are encouraging signs regarding progress in the response to HIV, around the world, there are nearly 16 million women are living with HIV. In sub-Saharan Africa, the region home to 22.4 million people living with HIV, three out of five adults and three out of four young people living with the virus are female.

In every region of the world, incidence rates of HIV infection among women are increasing.

The AIDS pandemic has changed the fabric of communities around the world and created a particular burden in the lives of many people, especially women and girls. In many settings where the health care system is already overburdened, women have stepped in and filled the gap and the funding on women’s rights has been key to success.

Yet, AIDS continues to be the leading cause of death and disease for women of reproductive age.

This is further compounded by the inequalities women face. Worldwide, seven out of ten of the world’s poor are women—living on less than a dollar a day and at least one in three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. It is widely recognised that violence is both a cause and consequence of HIV transmission.

Today, women living with HIV continue to experience gross human rights violations that relate to their sexual and reproductive health. In fact, human rights has often been characterised by governments as a great imposition, and so addressed more in the breach than in respect and accountability, most especially when it comes to those who are made vulnerable by the lack of human rights.

In 2006, governments promised to provide Universal Access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support for all those in need by December 2010. Sadly, most government have not delivered on this commitment.

The World YWCA, the World AIDS Campaign and the Women Won’t Wait Campaign call for strong and accountable leadership from governments for effective and sustainable solutions to HIV that uphold and protect the human rights of all women, especially young and women living with HIV. The rights of women must be upheld and implicit for an effective HIV response.

From research conducted for the production of the film ‘Where did the money go? Women’s rights and HIV’ developed by the World YWCA, the World AIDS Campaign and the Women Won’t Wait Campaign, it was clear that the money exists. The financial crisis and economic recession that is affecting most of the globe has had little effect on levels of military expenditure. The total global military expenditure in 2009 is estimated at US$1,5 trillion [1], Another example is the global bank bailout. The latest figures for bailout money amounted to US$8.5 trillion [2]. This spending shows the disparity and the lack of commitment to supporting communities in urgent need of universal access. Where is the money for women’s health, education, treatment, access to services, equality – Where is the money for women’s rights and HIV and AIDS?

If holistic and comprehensive solutions are to be achieved, funding must increased significantly and should go beyond financing traditional HIV programmes. Funding should include programmes and actions that empower women and girls as a strategic solution to reduce the impact of HIV and AIDS.

On World AIDS Day 2010, on the eve of the Universal Access deadline, the World YWCA, the World AIDS Campaign and the Women Won’t Wait Campaign call on governments to:

1. Deliver on the commitment to achieve universal access to treatment, prevention, care and support for all people, including through ensuring that national budgets address women’s rights and HIV by:

a. Empowering women and girls, especially those living with HIV as an integral and indivisible part of any HIV response

b. Establishing programs to prevent and redress violence against women and girls, and increase investment and access to sexual and reproductive health services with a rights based approach.

2. Promote gender equality and human rights of women and girls, including laws and services that protect and enable women to claim their rights.

3. Implement strategies, which lead to equitable representation and meaningful involvement of women in political, executive, legislative and judicial structures around the world including other decisions making bodies that address HIV strategies and programming.

4. Provide physical, sexual and psychological safety and security for women and girls.

As Hillary Clinton said in Beijing in 1995, “human rights are women's rights - and women's rights are human rights. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely - and the right to be heard. Women must enjoy the right to participate fully in the social and political lives of their countries if we want freedom and democracy to thrive and endure.” We demand that governments fulfil their promises and remove the barriers that prevent women and girls from accessing services for HIV that ensure their health and wellbeing.

Where is the Money for HIV and AIDS ( www.moneyforaids.org);is a consortium of regional and international organisations raising awareness of inadequate funding, corruption, and waste of money and resources in the AIDS response. Inspired by a campaign created by the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), Where is the Money for HIV and AIDS is coordinated by the Brazilian NGO Gestos and the Art and Global Health Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. The project is developed in partnership with Asia Pacific Council of AIDS Service Organisations (APCASO), the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV (CBMP), the Latin America and the Caribbean Council of AIDS Service Organisations (LACCASO), the Networking HIV/AIDS Community of South Africa (NACOSA), the World YWCA, and the World AIDS Campaign. The project is supported by the Ford Foundation.

[1] Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Yearbook 2010

[2] http://keepamericafree.com/?p=35

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2011/jul/12/aids-pharmaceuticals-industry/print

HIV/AIDS-POOR COUNTRIES TO BENEFIT FROM PATENT DRUGS AGREEMENT

 

Medicines Patent Pool agreement with Gilead Sciences allows Indian generics companies to make cheap copies of some of the best Aids drugs

People with HIV in poor countries have a real prospect of obtaining not just the basic, cheap drugs to keep the virus at bay, but some of the best medicines that are on offer anywhere in the world - at a price their governments can afford.

This remarkable turnaround is due to the Medicines Patent Pool, headed by the formidable Ellen 't Hoen, which has taken a concept many thought would never work and made it reality. On Tuesday, the patent pool announced its first licensing agreement with a pharmaceutical company, Gilead Sciences, a world leader in HIV medicines.

Gilead is the first pharma company to agree to put specific drug patents in the "pool". This will allow generic companies in India to make cheap copies of them for use in poor countries with major Aids epidemics. Even more importantly, the generics companies will also be allowed to make combinations of drugs from different companies (provided other companies follow Gilead's lead). In an ideal world, anybody with HIV who needed medication would be able to take a single pill once a day in which three or four medicines are combined.

Gilead is to be congratulated. It has agreed to let Indian manufacturers copy and combine not only two important licensed drugs, tenofovir and emtricitabine, but also two drugs that are still under clinical development and do not yet have a licence, cobicistat and elvitegravir. Gilead is itself developing a single pill called the "quad", which will combine all four drugs. Generics companies will also be allowed to start copying that too. With such a head start, it means that cheap generic versions can be ready for distribution as soon as Gilead gets its licences from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This is what Ellen 't Hoen said to me:


It provides a very significant improvement over the current status quo. These pipeline products really show the importance of it [the patent pool]. It will shorten the delays. Countries used to have to wait for years to get access to new medicines.

There is more too. Tenofovir is a hugely important HIV drug, which has lately been considered as a possible tool for preventing infection. It was the drug used in a vaginal gel in the CAPRISA trial in South Africa. The trial found women who used it were 39% less likely to become infected with HIV. Gilead has allowed generic companies to make copies of this important product, but the agreement will ensure access for more countries. The company is also going to allow generic versions for treating hepatitis B, for which tenofovir is also licensed.

The real value of the patent pool starts to become clear in this deal. The big pharma companies with important and lucrative Aids drugs have been willing to allow generic copies to be made, but on the basis of a deal here in India and another there in South Africa. Now - as long as Gilead's move is just the start - there will conceivably be a "one stop shop". 't Hoen says she will be encouraging generics companies to apply as early as this week. Her vision is of a multitude of generics companies making drugs - and driving the prices down through competition. Now that it has been shown that putting people with HIV on treatment makes them less likely to infect others, there is all the more reason to get good treatment to as many people as possible as early as possible.

Unitaid, which works for low prices for Aids drugs and was the launchpad for the patent pool, is delighted with the announcement. "We are sure now that the savings and price reductions that we have been working for over the last five years will continue to happen in the future," said Philippe Duneton, deputy executive secretary.

Mohga Kamal-Yanni, Oxfam senior health policy adviser, urged other companies to follow Gilead into the pool. "Other pharmaceutical companies now have no excuse for refusing to licence their drugs to the pool. Companies such as ViiV and Merck who are already in discussions with the pool need to get on board as quickly as possible to ensure the best possible medicines are made available to poor people at affordable prices. Others, such as Abbott, which have so far failed to engage at all with the pool should be ashamed of themselves and should start negotiations as soon as possible."