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Forwarded by
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
(September 13, 2003) --,
** More recently, UNAIDS welcomed the multilateral consensus among WTO
Member States regarding access to affordable medicines for countries
without sufficient manufacturing capacity in the pharmaceutical sector.
UNAIDS noted with appreciation that the consensus covers public health
problems in addition to AIDS, since people living with HIV are prone to
a host of opportunistic infections and other diseases -- cancers, fungal
infections and other killers -- that antiretrovirals do not treat
specifically. UNAIDS urges that the arrangements under the 30 August
Decision of the Council for TRIPS (Implementation of Paragraph 6 of the
Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health) be
implemented in the most flexible manner possible, so that developing
countries can utilize the system easily and efficiently in their efforts
to ensure greater access to HIV medicines for their peoples. UNAIDS will
monitor closely the use of the Paragraph 6 system with respect to
HIV-related pharmaceutical products.
Statement of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
(fn
1) at the Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference
Cancun, Mexico
10-13 September 2003
UNAIDS welcomes that the AIDS epidemic has become a central concern of
the World Trade Organization (WTO). UNAIDS expresses its appreciation
to
WTO Member States for placing AIDS high on their agenda and for their
efforts to ensure that international trade rules support access to HIV
medicines and other commodities.
Trade rules and policies are especially important in responding to the
AIDS crisis. The vast majority – 95% – of people living with
HIV is in
developing countries, and trade is one of the main means through which
developing countries can seek to reduce poverty, share in overall global
prosperity and advance the economic and social development of their
peoples. Poverty, underdevelopment and illiteracy are principal factors
contributing to the spread of HIV.
The epidemic, in turn, contributes to the exacerbation of poverty in
severely affected countries. AIDS is driving up the cost of commerce
directly through added costs to businesses for health care and insurance
benefits, and indirectly through decreased productivity. While it
remains difficult to calibrate the macroeconomic impact of the epidemic,
there is growing evidence that as HIV prevalence rates rise, prospects
for economic growth are dimmed. Annual gross domestic product (GDP) has
been estimated to drop by an average of 2.6 percentage points in
countries with prevalence rates over 20%.
Two years ago, at the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, trade
ministers agreed to begin a new round of trade negotiations in which –
for the first time – the needs of developing countries would be treated
as a central priority. There was optimism that key issues related to the
long-term development and prosperity of developing countries would be
considered prominently in subsequent trade negotiations, and that the
results would provide a boost to UN efforts to reduce global poverty
under the Millennium Development Goals. It is vital that the Ministerial
Conference in Cancun keep, and build upon, the promise of Doha.
One of the greatest human rights and development dilemmas of our time
is
the intolerable global inequity between industrialized and developing
countries with respect to access to HIV treatment. Where HIV
antiretroviral therapy is widely accessible, AIDS-related illness and
deaths have fallen sharply, enabling people with HIV to remain with
their families and friends and to continue their productive lives. The
vast majority of people living with HIV in developing countries,
however, are severely deprived of these medicines. Of the 5 to 6 million
people estimated to require essential antiretroviral medicines in
developing countries today, only some 300,000 – or 5 percent –
have
access to them. The World Health Organization, with support from others
within UNAIDS and other partners, is now mobilizing a massive campaign
to support developing countries to reach 3 million people with HIV
treatment by 2005.
Within the context of the growing social movement to expand access to
HIV medicines, UNAIDS greatly welcomed the WTO Declaration on the TRIPS
Agreement and Public Health (the “Doha Declaration”). WTO Member
States,
in reaffirming that public health interests and access to medicines for
all must be primary considerations in the application of international
trade rules, and in extending the TRIPS transition period for least
developed countries to 2016, enabled governments to strengthen their
response to AIDS.
More recently, UNAIDS welcomed the multilateral consensus among WTO
Member States regarding access to affordable medicines for countries
without sufficient manufacturing capacity in the pharmaceutical sector.
UNAIDS noted with appreciation that the consensus covers public health
problems in addition to AIDS, since people living with HIV are prone to
a host of opportunistic infections and other diseases -- cancers, fungal
infections and other killers -- that antiretrovirals do not treat
specifically. UNAIDS urges that the arrangements under the 30 August
Decision of the Council for TRIPS (Implementation of Paragraph 6 of the
Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health) be
implemented in the most flexible manner possible, so that developing
countries can utilize the system easily and efficiently in their efforts
to ensure greater access to HIV medicines for their peoples. UNAIDS will
monitor closely the use of the Paragraph 6 system with respect to
HIV-related pharmaceutical products.
As the world enters the third decade of the AIDS epidemic, 42 million
people are living with HIV infection. More than three million people
died from AIDS in 2002, the vast majority in developing countries. In
the worst-affected nations, the epidemic is robbing societies of the
resources and capacities on which human security and development depend.
UNAIDS urges the Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference to ensure that its
decisions concerning trade rules, policies and practices support efforts
to scale up HIV treatment to vastly greater numbers of people living
with HIV. UNAIDS reiterates its commitment to support the WTO in the
many areas in which its work relates to the fight against AIDS.
[] <#_ftnref1> The Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS)
is
the leading advocate for global action on HIV/AIDS, bringing together
eight Cosponsors in a common effort to fight the epidemic: the
International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN Children’s Fund
(UNICEF), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Population Fund
(UNFPA), the UN International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), the UN
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World
Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank. This Statement is
submitted by the UNAIDS Secretariat.
--
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
http://www.cptech.org, mailto:james.love@cptech.org
tel. +1.202.387.8030, mobile +1.202.361.3040
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