E-drug: MSF press release re Pfizer
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For immediate release:
Press Release
LONG-TERM STRATEGY NEEDED
TO TREAT AIDS IN POOR COUNTRIES
Doctors Without Borders Reacts to Pfizer Drug Donation to South Africa
New York/Geneva, April 3, 2000 - The international medical relief agency
Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) today welcomed the
announcement that Pfizer will donate the anti-fungal drug, Diflucan
(fluconazole), to AIDS patients in South Africa, but cautioned that a
donation is not a long-term solution for saving the lives of people with
AIDS worldwide.
"We are pleased that this donation - if implemented effectively - will save
lives in South Africa. However, from our experience working in over 80
countries, we know that drug donations are not a global and sustainable
solution to the AIDS pandemic," stated Bernard Pecoul, M.D., director of
the
organization's Access to Essential Medicines Campaign.
"For the vast majority of the 32 million people with HIV/AIDS in developing
countries, Pfizer's action will have no impact," continued Dr. Pecoul.
Doctors Without Borders is calling on pharmaceutical companies to use
mechanisms other than charity to make life-saving drugs available to people
in poor countries. This could be done most effectively by lowering prices
to
affordable levels - through tiered pricing - or by issuing voluntary
licenses that would allow for the importation or production of generic
versions of treatments.
"We're delighted that at least one step has been made toward providing
treatments for AIDS patients - but is it a sustainable option?" stated
Chris
Ouma, a physician who works with Doctors Without Borders at Mbagathi
Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. "We're very happy for the South Africans, but
for me, as a Kenyan doctor, and for the Kenyan patients dying from
cryptoccocal meningitis, it doesn't help much." In Kenya, where Pfizer
continues to hold the patent on fluconazole, the drug remains prohibitively
priced and the majority of patients diagnosed with cryptoccocal meningitis
die without treatment.
Doctors Without Borders is conducting an international campaign to improve
access to essential medicines in poor countries. For more about the
campaign, see our website: http://www.accessmed-msf.org
For more information, call Kris Torgeson in New York at (1) 212-655-3764
or (1) 917-913-0183.
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