E-DRUG: MSF AIDS Statement to US Congressional Committee

[Daniel_BERMAN@geneva.msf.org (Daniel BERMAN)]

E-drug: MSF AIDS Statement to US Congressional Committee
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[copied from IP-HEALTH with thanks]

Below is MSF's position on the US role in combating the AIDS 
crisis in developing countries.  The statement was submitted for 
a US congressional hearing on the global AIDS crisis that will 
take place on July 22nd.     

     ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
     
     
     Honorable John L. Mica
     Chairman of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and 
     Human Resources of the Committee on Government Reform
     House of Representatives
     B373 Rayburn House Office Building
     Washington, DC 20515
     
                                        New York, July 19, 1999
     
     Mr. Chairman,
     
     Thank you, Chairman for convening a hearing before the subcommittee 
     this Wednesday July 22, 1999 to discuss the US role in combating the 
     global HIV/AIDS epidemic.  This hearing has renewed our hope that 
     efforts by Congress and the Administration will take further action on 
     behalf of the millions worldwide affected by this epidemic.
     
     The reality of the AIDS pandemic in Africa and Asia can be 
     overwhelming. The staggering numbers lead some people to believe that 
     no action-in the absence of an effective vaccine-could possibly make a 
     dent in the suffering.
     
     At Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), our medical 
     volunteers, with many Americans among them, and our local staff work 
     with one patient at a time. We know that access to effective 
     treatments can and does make a difference. The sad reality is that 
     even in communities where there is sufficient health care 
     infrastructure to administer life-saving therapies, people are dying 
     of treatable infections because of the high prices of these 
     treatments.
     
     In the United States, AIDS care has been transformed with the 
     availability of effective anti-HIV and anti-opportunistic infection 
     treatments. At Doctors Without Borders, we believe that it is possible 
     to share some of these advances with people in developing countries. 
     What if penicillin had been patented-would we have let high prices 
     keep it beyond the reach of entire countries? If the Salk vaccine had 
     received an ironclad patent would we have allowed prices to prevent 
     access?
     
     Times have changed and we clearly understand the need to have patent 
     protection as an incentive to drive investment dollars into research. 
     But we also believe there are ways in which we can humanize the 
     current global pharmaceutical market without changing the existing 
     global trade rules.
     
     In an effort to support the pharmaceutical industry, the US government 
     has been exacerbating rather than alleviating the pain caused by AIDS 
     in poor countries.
     
     Take the case of Thailand, a country in which Doctors Without Borders 
     works with local Thai staff to care for people with AIDS. The Thai 
     government had a system whereby it produced generic versions of drugs 
     to treat life-threatening diseases. This system depended on the 
     Pharmaceutical Patent Review Board which had the authority to collect 
     economic data, including the production costs of pharmaceuticals.
     
     The US government, claiming that the Review Board violated the rights 
     of the US pharmaceutical industry, threatened Thailand with higher 
     tariffs on imports of wood products and jewelry. This threat was made 
     during the Asian financial crisis when Thailand was starved for export 
     earnings. Thailand capitulated and therefore today only has access to 
     AIDS antiretrovirals at global prices set by global drug 
     companies-prices 90 percent higher than those of generic drugs (with 
     the exception of AZT which is processed locally).
     
     US trade pressure must stop. We must take the moral high ground and 
     acknowledge that life-saving medicines should not be treated as 
     non-essential goods.
     
     Doctors Without Borders believes that the US and other wealthy nations 
     need to state clearly that they are willing to shoulder more of the 
     research and development burden than poor countries. This means that 
     we should be willing to pay the existing high prices while encouraging 
     drug companies to sell or license their products to poor countries at 
     prices that cover manufacturing costs plus a reasonable profit margin.
     
     Our demands are not radical when you consider that safety valves 
     already exist in current global trade law that facilitate this dual 
     pricing strategy. We ask only that the US government stop trying to 
     prevent poor countries from enacting these legal provisions-such as 
     parallel imports and compulsory licensing.
     
     The drug industry claims that without high prices in poor countries 
     they will not be able to fund research and development. This argument 
     falls flat when you consider that at current prices a tiny minority of 
     people are currently buying these treatments. IMS, an authority on 
     pharmaceutical marketing, estimates that by the year 2002 Asian 
     countries will account for only seven percent of the worldwide market.
     
     The US government must stop supporting a policy that benefits the 
     pharmaceutical industry at the expense of people with life-threatening 
     diseases. We believe it is possible to strike a more humane balance.
     
     
     Daniel Berman, Médecins Sans Frontières
     daniel_berman@geneva.msf.org
     

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