Doctors Without Borders / Medecins Sans Fronteres (MSF) Press Conference in Brussels on Monday, April 26th
India-EU Free Trade Agreement Threatens Millions Living with HIV
India and the European Union are about to conclude negotiations for a free trade agreement.
This agreement poses a threat to the production in India of generic drugs and their export to developing countries. 92% of HIV/AIDS patients in the developing world depend on generic drugs that mostly come from India.
The EU can't sacrifice the lives of millions of people living with HIV for commercial interests.
Over 80% of the antiretroviral drugs that MSF uses in its AIDS projects throughout the world are produced in India, dubbed the 'pharmacy of the developing world'.
If this agreement were to be signed as it now stands, the consequences for access to medicines would be dramatic, and could shut down production of generic drugs in India - leaving millions of patients without treatment.
--
Guillaume Bonnet, Press officer
Doctors Without Borders / Medecins Sans Frontieres
http://www.msfaccess.org
mailto:Guillaume.Bonnet@geneva.msf.org