[e-drug] MSF Demands US Support to Make Affordable ddI

[Daniel Berman <Daniel_Berman@geneva.msf.org>]

E-drug: MSF Demands US Support to Make Affordable ddI
---------------------------------------------

(Press Release)

MSF CALLS ON CLINTON ADMINISTRATION TO ACTIVELY SUPPORT
THAILAND EFFORTS TO PRODUCE AFFORDABLE ANTI-HIV DRUGS 

January 12, 2000 Bangkok/NY - The international relief organization
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today called on the US
administration to take concrete steps to begin implementing the new
widely publicized policy on life-saving AIDS drugs. This policy was
first announced by President Clinton in Seattle and further discussed
by Vice President Gore this week at the Security Council meeting on
AIDS in Africa. 

At the Security Council, Vice President Gore said "the United States is
profoundly moved by the toll AIDS takes in Africa." He stressed the
importance of HIV education and prevention, including vaccines.

Prevention and education are vital, but what about the 22 million
people already infected with HIV? Can we simply allow them to die
when medicines are already available that could prolong their lives? 

The Clinton/Gore administration is ignoring an obvious strategy that
could prolong tens of thousands of lives and relieve the suffering and
pain caused by opportunistic infections. The administration should
actively support attempts of various countries to begin producing
inexpensive life-saving AIDS drugs.

Take the case of Thailand. The Thai government is poised to produce
the important anti-HIV drug ddI but has faced repeated pressure by its
producer and the United States Trade Representative not to do so.
Although Thailand has the right within international trade rules to
produce a generic version of the drug, repeated threats by the USTR
have been taken seriously. Poorer countries commercial policies are
significantly influenced by the US because access to the US market
and US loans and investment are viewed as critical to improve
national economies. 

"I see patients dying because they cannot afford medicines and the
US government has the power to help me as a doctor to save many of
these lives, even without a vaccine," said MSF's medical coordinator
in Thailand, Dr. Tido von Schoen-Angerer. "The Clinton/Gore
administration can help by pro-actively supporting the efforts of the
Thai government to produce affordable medicines."

Everyday MSF doctors and their local counterparts in Africa, Asia and
Latin America are diagnosing opportunistic infections but are forced to
tell their patients that treatment is too expensive to consider. In some
cases, the infrastructure is in place to begin administering the anti-HIV
cocktails that have become the standard-of-care in wealthy countries,
but again high drug prices prevent these prescriptions from being
written. 
 
Earlier this week Gore said that the US: "Will cooperate with our
trading partners to assure that US trade policies do not hinder their
efforts to respond to health crisis". MSF calls on the US to go beyond
just "not hindering their efforts", and to actively support these trading
partners and their doctors. 

MSF is conducting an international advocacy campaign to improve
access to essential medicines in poor countries.

Daniel Berman
Access to Essential Medicines Campaign
MSF
daniel_berman@geneva.msf.org
41 22 849 8407

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