E-DRUG: UN to Lead fight against HIV/AIDS
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JOINT UN/UNAIDS/WHO PRESS RELEASE
THE UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY GENERAL TO LEAD THE FIGHT AGAINST HIV/AIDS
Amsterdam, 5 April 2001 � The Secretary General of the United Nations,
Kofi Annan, today met with six of the world�s leading pharmaceutical
companies to agree what further steps need to be taken to improve access
to better healthcare, HIV medicines and HIV-related medicines for
developing countries as part of further action to combat AIDS, including
prevention, education and research.
The Secretary General met with CEOs and senior executives of six
pharmaceutical companies (Abbott Laboratories, Boehringer Ingelheim,
Bristol-Myers Squibb, Glaxo Smith Kline, Hoffman-La Roche, and Pfizer).
At the meeting, the Secretary General was joined by Gro Harlem
Brundtland, Director-General of the World Health Organization, and Peter
Piot, the Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on
HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
The companies have made significant progress individually in providing
an expanded number of drugs to combat AIDS, including antiretrovirals
and treatments for opportunistic infections. Prices have come down
substantially as a result of the companies� individual actions. The
Secretary General urged them to continue and accelerate these
initiatives. Special emphasis was placed on the Least Developed
Countries, particularly those in Africa, as well as the need for
continued country-by-country negotiations in other developing countries.
All recognized that qualified non-governmental organizations and
appropriate private companies offering healthcare to employees and local
communities in these nations should also be considered for increased
accessibility to HIV/AIDS medicines.
�Encouraging the active participation of all partners in the fight
against AIDS has become my personal priority,� said Kofi Annan in a
statement released today. �The epidemic is the greatest public health
challenge of our times and we must harness the expertise of all sectors
of society. The pharmaceutical industry is playing a crucial role. We
need to combine incentive for research with access to medication for the
poor. Intellectual property protection is key to bringing forward new
medicines, vaccines and diagnostics urgently needed for the health of
the world's poorest people. The UN fully supports the TRIPS agreement -
including the safeguards incorporated within it. However, the solution
does not lie with the pharmaceutical companies alone. I am calling for a
major mobilisation - of political will and significant additional
funding - to enable a dramatic leap forward in prevention, education,
care and treatment.�
The companies include four � Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers
Squibb, Glaxo Smith Kline and Hoffman-La Roche � which last year signed
a Statement of Intent with five United Nations agencies within the
Accelerating Access endeavour in which they committed to explore
practical and specific ways of working together more closely to
accelerate access to HIV/AIDS-related care and treatment in developing
countries. During this time, agreements have been reached between the
companies and five countries, Cameroon, C�te D�Ivoire, Rwanda, Senegal
and Uganda. Today�s discussion builds upon and seeks to expand the
progress made to date. This includes efforts made to increase the
availability of interventions to reduce the incidence of mother-to-child
transmission.
�The HIV epidemic demands nothing less than a radical transformation of
how we approach health care in developing countries, �said Dr Piot,
�Many issues must be addressed if care and treatment in the developing
world are to be improved, and affordability of medicines is an intrinsic
part of such a comprehensive health care strategy.�
�Access to affordable medicines is a key element in improving both care
and prevention,� Dr Brundtland. � Affordable drugs will catalyze greatly
increased attention to voluntary counselling and testing, effective
healthcare delivery systems, and innovative funding mechanisms.�
In a number of countries, decades of development are being reversed by
HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Some 36.1 million people are living
with HIV or AIDS worldwide, with 5.3 million newly infected during 2000
alone. That same year, 3 million people died of AIDS, bringing the total
number of deaths since the start of the epidemic to 21.8 million.
The spread of the epidemic and its devastating impact on humanity
alarmed the United Nations and prompted it to convene a Special Session
of the General Assembly on HIV/AIDS at the highest political level. To
be held from 25-27 June in New York, the Special Session will focus the
world�s attention on the epidemic. It aims to intensify international
action to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS and to mobilize the additional
resources that will be needed.