E-DRUG: Thailand, Abbott & the Second Line HIV Crisis: Teleconf & MSF briefing
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Doctors Without Borders/ Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)
For Immediate Release
Contact Kevin Phelan at: +1-212-655-3763; +1-646-201-8230 (mobile)
MEDIA ADVISORY / PRESS TELECONFERENCE
The Second-Line AIDS Crisis: Condemned to Repeat?
WHEN: Wednesday April 25, 2007, 10:00 am EST
CALL IN: +1-866-244-4629 toll free in the United States
+1-703-639-1176 from abroad
WHO:
- Tido von Schoen-Angerer, MD, Executive Director, Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)
- Paul Cawthorne, Head of Mission for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) projects in Thailand
- Warit Purahong, Chairperson, Thai Network of Positive People (TNP+)
- Rohit Malpani, Trade Policy Advisor, Oxfam America
When the government of Thailand in March issued a compulsory license for
the crucial second-line AIDS medicine Lopinavir/ritonavir, marketed as
Kaletra by Abbott Laboratories, the Chicago-based company took the
unprecedented step of withdrawing all new medicines from the registration
process in Thailand.
This week, several community leaders from Thailand will be in the United
States to discuss the importance of using flexibilities like compulsory
licenses to overcome the crisis in AIDS care in Thailand and throughout
the developing world.
Compulsory licenses are legally recognized by all governments in the WTO
as a means to overcome the barriers created by monopolistic pricing
practices. In fact, Abbott Laboratories benefited from a compulsory
license ordered by Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2005 on the
rapid-exchange delivery system for drug-eluting stents (DES). But Abbott's
harsh move in Thailand, and drug patent disputes elsewhere, raise several
important questions:
· What good are the flexibilities built into international trade
agreements if countries will be penalized for using them?
· What will be needed to provide people living with HIV/AIDS and
other diseases the medicines required for their survival?
· How do we avoid repeating the situation in the late 1990s, when
many people living with HIV/AIDS were condemned to death simply because
they could not pay for life-saving medicines that were widely available in
the developed world?
BRIEFING NOTE
This briefing note prepared by Doctors Without Borders - Medecins Sans
Frontieres (MSF) examines recent developments in Thailand in the context
of the second line HIV-AIDS crisis. It highlights MSF's experience
treating patients with HIV/AIDS in Thailand. This experience demonstrates
the importance of TRIPS flexibilities in ensuring access to essential
medicines. Given the unprecedented retaliation by Abbott Laboratories
against Thailand's lawful actions, as well as other patent disputes
occurring internationally as a result of the use of TRIPS flexibilities by
developing countries, we ask... what good are the flexibilities built into
international trade agreements if countries will be penalized for using
them?
For the briefing note see
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/access/thailand_briefingdoc_04-11-2007.cfm
For a history of MSF's efforts to obtain heat stable Kaletra for our
patients from Abbott Laboratories see:
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/hiv-aids/kaletra_briefingdoc.cfm
Buddhima Lokuge
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
New York
Buddhima Lokuge <Buddhima.Lokuge@newyork.msf.org>