Activists call on UN to act on AIDS drugs
Activists call on UN to act on AIDS drugs
Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Hundreds of AIDS activists sent a petition to the United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday, appealing to the world
body to help developing and less developed countries obtain
access to generic versions of patented drugs.
Grouped in the Indonesian Movement for Increased Access to
HIV/AIDS Therapy, representatives of HIV-positive people, doctors
and health workers, non-governmental organizations and
journalists from across the country urged the UN to block moves
by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to ban producers of generic
antiretroviral drugs from exporting the life-saving medicines to
needy countries.
"...poor countries are unable to produce affordable life-
saving drugs on their own ... As a developing country, Indonesia
is also in a dire need of access to affordable antiretroviral
drugs since the recent financial and economic crises have had
adverse consequences for the welfare of the people," the letter
reads.
The WTO acknowledged last year that trading rules regulating
intellectual property rights must not serve as barriers to the
promotion and protection of public health.
It allowed developing nations to produce generic drugs in
times of medical crisis but barred them from exporting the drugs.
The director of the Dharmais National Cancer Center,
Samsuridjal Djauzi, said that the export ban could endanger the
lives of people living with AIDS in developing countries that had
inadequate or no pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity.
He said that such generic antiretroviral drugs had made the
viral load in more than 100 HIV-positive people undetectable.
"The drugs also bring clinical improvements for HIV-positive
people. By taking a combination of antiretroviral drugs, they
experience an increase in appetite, gain some weight, and no
longer suffer from fevers or infections. They can lead a normal
and productive life with such medicines," Samsuridjal said.
A HIV-positive person in Indonesia would need to spend up to
Rp 700,000 per month on generic drugs while the patented ones
cost up to Rp 3.9 million.
Currently, there are 350 HIV-infected people in the country
who have access to the generic life-saving drugs while some
85,000 others cannot afford the treatment.