Activists Protest Bush AIDS Drugs Policy
|
WASHINGTON, Mar 29 (IPS) - U.S. Africa and AIDS activists are increasing pressure on the Bush administration to abandon its apparent efforts to block the use of U.S. aid to purchase life-preserving, generic anti-AIDS drugs for needy Africans, about 6,000 of whom die every day from the disease.
On Monday, nine AIDS activists were arrested by police here after chaining themselves together and blocking traffic in front of the downtown headquarters of the main lobbying association for the U.S. pharmaceutical companies that are behind the administration's efforts. The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) has been pressing the administration to oppose the use of generic drugs by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other international donors in favor of brand-name drugs, which are far more costly. The demonstrators were trying to draw attention to a U.S.-backed meeting this week in Botswana at which Washington is trying to gain an ''international consensus'' from United Nations agencies and African countries on what criteria should be applied to determine the safety and quality of anti-retroviral drugs that are bought by USAID and other donor agencies. ''The U.S. initiated the Botswana conference at the behest of the pharmaceutical companies, and its agenda is to protect their profits by blocking the procurement of generic AIDS drugs'', said Salih Booker, head of Africa Action, one of the co-sponsors of Monday's protest. ''If the U.S. succeeds, millions of people living with HIV/AIDS will be left without the medicines they need to survive.'' The Botswana meeting, which runs Monday and Tuesday, comes amid growing concern over the fate of the global anti-AIDS fight, which appears to have stalled in recent months due to the failure of major donors to commit more money to the effort, and because of continuing wrangles over the use of patented or generic drugs. Activists had hoped that a proposal made by Bush himself 14 months ago to allocate $15 billion over five years to fighting AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean would inject major momentum to global anti-AIDS efforts. But the Bush administration's opposition to the use of generic drugs and its insistence on providing the vast majority of the money through bilateral channels rather than through the a Global Fund created for that purpose, have contributed to the sense that the international response to the worst epidemic in recorded history is falling far short of what is required. The activists are not without powerful allies. Last week, opposition Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy and his Republican colleague, John McCain, sent a letter to the White House asking that Bush accept WHO-approved generics. ''We should wait no longer to provide safe and effective low-cost medications to the developing world, and again, urge you to reconsider the administration's actions,'', they wrote. ''Make no mistake, delays will cost lives.'' The lead article in Sunday's New York Times, was headlined 'Plan to Battle AIDS Worldwide is Falling Short.' The feature article noted prominently that only about 300,000 people in the world's poorest nations are currently getting live-preserving anti-retroviral drugs, out of the approximately six million who need them. Late last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched its ''3 by 5 initiative'' to ensure that three million people were receiving the drugs by 2005. But earlier this month, Stephen Lewis, the special U.N. envoy for AIDS in Africa, admitted that the paucity of donor contributions to date would make it impossible to reach that goal. In that respect, the battle over generics versus brand-name drugs is critical. Even though major western manufacturers have slashed the prices they charge for these drugs in the world's poorest countries, they remain more expensive than generics. U.S. officials are particularly opposed to the use of fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) of anti-retroviral drugs, which combine drugs from multiple sources into single pills that are taken twice daily and that are currently recommended for use by the WHO. The generic versions of these drugs cost as little as $140 per person per year, while the same combination from brand-name companies is priced at at least $560 per year and must be taken in the form of six pills a day. According to the activists, Washington hopes to persuade participants at the Botswana meeting to reject FDCs on the grounds that they do not meet adequate safety and quality standards. U.S. officials deny that is the purpose of the meeting and stress that they have never ruled out using generics, even for the administration's own President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), Bush's five-year program. But the activists say Washington's denial is disingenuous, particularly in light of the WHO's pre-existing approval of FDCs. ''The moves by the U.S. to call into question the safety and efficacy of generic AIDS drugs represent a callous attempt to undermine the WHO's existing rigorous international standards'', said Booker. ''The administration is now essentially attacking the WHO's '3 by 5' initiative because it knows that generic FDCs are indispensable to achieving that goal. ''President Bush is a drug company puppet,'' said Asia Russell of Health Global Access Project (Health GAP). ''He plans to force millions of people with HIV/AIDS to accept higher pill burdens and waste tax money to create a slush fund for Big Pharma. If Bush would use the WHO's quality-assured generics, we could treat four times as many people in need.'' Indicating its own disapproval, the European Union's drug regulatory authority pulled out of the Botswana meeting, which could make the ''international consensus'' sought by Washington much more difficult to achieve. Fueling the fire is the fact that Bush's new global AIDS tsar, Randall Tobias, is himself a former chief executive officer at the U.S. drug company, Eli Lilly. While he has repeatedly insisted that Washington will support any drug deemed safe and effective at the lowest possible price, he has also raised questions about the reliability of generics. Tobias's past ties to the pharmaceutical companies, which were big donors to Bush's 2000 election campaign, have only heightened suspicions about their influence on U.S. policy. Tobias is leading the U.S. delegation in Gaberone. The WHO strongly favours FDCs and insists that its own standards are based on the same as those applied by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration (FDA). Lembit Rago, a senior WHO official, told the Times that as soon as his assessments office approved Indian-made generic drugs for international anti-AIDS efforts, ''a very cold wind began to blow from the U.S. It is no secret that Pharma is lobbying against us in a big way." |
Printable version
Back to top
