East African Access To Essential Medicines Conference
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June 15 -16, 2000
Nairobi, Kenya
Improving Access To Essential Medicines In East Africa: Patens And
Prices In A Global Economy
Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) and Health Action International will be
holding a conference on 15 and 16 June in Nairobi on "Improving Access
to Essential Medicines in East Africa - Patents and Prices in a Global
Economy".
The conference will highlight reasons that make many drugs priced be-
yond the reach of the vast majority of East Africans and will look at
new strategies to dramatically reduce prices and increase access.
Objectives
The East African Access to Essential Medicines Conference will explore
several aspects of the access crisis in East Africa (with a focus on
Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia):
High prices of critical essential medicines such as second-line antibi-
otics and treatments for opportunistic infections associated with AIDS.
New regional data on drug prices will be presented and compared with
other regions' prices showing evidences that in some cases East Afri-
cans are paying drastically more for the same treatments.
Link between international trade regulations and the availability and
prices of drugs: The real and perceived intellectual property problems.
Sometimes national medical stores and private drug distributors do not
order less expensive generic versions of drugs because they think mul-
tinational companies have exclusive rights to market these products.
Legal strategies to improve access to affordable essential medicines
where new drugs are protected by patents: legal framework will be dis-
cussed, including compulsory licensing and parallel imports, which are
both allowed under the TRIPS agreement.
National strategies and plans to be developed: How can governments and
civil society, including NGOs, address these issues and thereby in-
crease access to essential medicines; is it possible to gain the sup-
port of international organisations and developed countries? Problems
related to the effective implementation of rational drug use programmes
such as lack of health care capacity and/or inadequate diagnosis, drug
prescription or distribution will be touched upon, but will not be the
focus of this meeting. These are important issues but should not ob-
scure the fact that the prices of drugs also dramatically affect ac-
cess.
Registration procedure
There will be a registration fee to attend the conference of USD 250. A
subsidised rate of USD 125 is applicable for Regional or international
NGO's and other non-profit associations Members of East African govern-
ments, parliaments, public administrations and other institutions. A
limited number of grants will be accessible to participants. Partici-
pants requiring financial assistance are requested to send an explana-
tory cover letter, with full details of funding required and amounts
clearly stated, before 21 May 2000 to the Conference Secretariat to-
gether with the conference registration form and hotel reservation
form. Since there is only a limited amount of funding available, the
organisers reserve the right to select a certain number of partici-
pants, and their decision is final. All those seeking funding will be
informed of the decision of the organisers and of any conditions per-
taining to their participating under the funding arranged by the organ-
isers by 31 May 2000.
Members of the Press are invited to contact the Conference Secretariat.
A copy of the conference registration form and further information on
this conference can be obtained from:
Pierre-Andre Warny
Access Conference Secretariat
P.O. Box 38897
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254-2-572-094, 570-021 or 570-025 (extension 107)
Fax: +254-2-572-157
mailto:access.conference@msfb.or.ke
or
mailto:access@msfb.or.ke
More information on this meeting will be available on our web-site
http://www.accessmed-msf.org
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