HEALTH-AUSTRALIA: Focus on Drug Access at HIV/AIDS Meet

Neena Bhandari

SYDNEY, Jul 21 2007 (IPS) – Delegates at a major international conference on HIV and AIDS, set to unfold here on Sunday, are expected to urge the developed countries to help guarantee the supply of affordable drugs to combat the virus and the syndrome.
Over 5,000 delegates from 130 countries are in Sydney to attend the Fourth International AIDS Society (IAS 2007) conference featuring the latest developments in HIV biology, pathogenesis, treatment and prevention science. It aims to explore how the gap between research and practice can be bridged, particularly in developing countries that bear the brunt of the HIV pandemic.

Oxfam Australia set the tone by asking the Australian government to speak up against big pharmaceutical companies that have put profits before saving lives of the most vulnerable people.

As Oxfam Australia executive director Andrew Hewett says: Some of the world s leading pharmaceutical companies have worked to prevent developing countries from reducing the price of high-cost medicines. In some cases big pharma has put profits before lives.

For example, in Thailand, where government sponsored anti-retroviral (ARV) medicines and those made affordable saved at least 80,000 lives, some pharmaceutical companies increased the price of their drugs beyond the reach of poor people.

In one instance, Abbott Pharmaceutical withdrew from the Thai market a number of life-saving medicines in response to the Thai government s decision to issue a compulsory license to import or produce generic medicines, which would have resulted in lives being saved.
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In the end though Abbott Pharmaceutical capitulated and reduced the price of some of its drugs. But not before the lives of some of the world s poorest people were put at risk due to the actions of big pharma , says Hewitt.

Preventing unnecessary suffering and death due to HIV/AIDS is humane and it can also help lift millions of people out of poverty. As a good global citizen, Australia can help save lives by ensuring the nation s aid dollars are spent efficiently on low-cost generic HIV/AIDS drugs, Hewitt adds.

The Australian government has committed 600 million Aus dollars (528 million US dollars) for over four years to treat as well as prevent HIV and AIDS in the Asia- Pacific region. But some of this investment could be undermined by the actions of big pharma whose unwillingness to make anti-retroviral drugs affordable in some developing countries has undoubtedly cost lives.

Held every two years, IAS 2007 is organised by the IAS in partnership with the Australasian Society for HIV Medicine (ASHM) and is supported by AusAID (Australian government s overseas aid programme) and the Australian department of health and ageing.

With important developments in HIV science on the horizon, the need to effectively translate science into practice has never been more important, says ASHM president and deputy co-chair of IAS 2007 Dr Sharon Lewin.

The successful scale-up of prevention and treatment requires an unprecedented level of collaboration between scientists, clinicians and others on the frontlines and the IAS conference is where this collaboration happens, she adds.

Approximately 40 million people are currently living with HIV/ AIDS. Up to one-fifth of these people are in the Asia-Pacific region. Asia has one of the fastest growing epidemics with almost one million people newly infected with HIV in the past 12 months.

This has become a serious concern especially given the crippling social, health and economic impact of HIV/AIDS on communities. The epidemic has the potential to undermine sustained growth of markets in the Asia -Pacific region because it strikes at the heart of the workforce (those between the ages of 15-49). In 2001, the economic losses from HIV/AIDS in the Asia-Pacific were estimated at 7.3 billion dollars.

The short timeframe in which South Africa s HIV epidemic has reached almost one-third of its population serves as a warning to business people in the Asia-Pacific to take the epidemic seriously and respond with appropriate measures.

In February 2006, the Asia-Pacific Business Coalition on AIDS (APBCA) was established as a direct response to the need for greater private sector engagement, coordination and commitment to the regional fight against HIV/AIDS. It was launched by Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer and former U.S. president Bill Clinton.

The choice of Australia as host of IAS 2007 reflects the country s longstanding commitment to HIV/AIDS. The conference reflects our institutional commitment to HIV research, and to an evidence-based response to the pandemic. Over 3,100 valid abstracts were submitted, representing more than 50 percent increase in the number of abstracts submitted to the IAS 2005 conference held in Rio de Janeiro , says IAS 2007 local co-chair Dr. David Cooper.

Issues to be discussed include basic science. Many experts believe it will be many years before a vaccine for HIV/AIDS is found given how readily the virus mutates.

The second track of the conference focuses on clinical research. Although large majorities of people who need ART in low- and middle-income countries do not receive these drugs, antiretroviral access has improved steadily over the past few years.

UNAIDS, the joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS, reports that the number of people on ART in low- and middle-income countries has early doubled in 2005. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than a million people were getting ART by June 2006, a 10-fold increase since December 2003. Thailand and Brazil have plans to enforce compulsory licensing of key ARVs.

The third track of the conference will focus on biomedical prevention through circumcision, preventing mother-to-child transmission and prevention methods controlled by women.

IAS 2007 will also examine the often fatal partnership between HIV and TB. Controlling co-infection with TB and HIV has assumed greater urgency since the discovery of extensive drug-resistant TB strains in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, informs Cooper.

Simultaneous to the conference, ministers and senior government officials along with businesses from Australia, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Vietnam will be attending the third Asia-Pacific Ministerial Meeting on HIV/AIDS. The meeting aims to promote high-level leadership and partnership among key stakeholders in combating HIV/AIDS in the region .

The first Asia Pacific Ministerial Meeting on HIV/AIDS held in Melbourne in 2001, in part, built on the momentum from the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS). The second ministerial meeting in Bangkok in 2004 focused on Access for All: Political Accountability and the important role of political leadership in the response to HIV/AIDS in the region.