More than twenty technology companies are responding to a call to support the fight against counterfeit medicines spearheaded by the International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce (IMPACT) set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners. They were to join the IMPACT Working Group on Technology for a one-day meeting in Prague to assess technologies which could improve the global prevention, tracking and detection of counterfeit medicines. "In the case of anti counterfeiting, the challenges we face are finding technologies that cannot themselves be counterfeited and transferring them to resource poor settings at an affordable cost. While technology alone cannot solve the problem, some of these solutions could greatly enhance the ability to detect and deter the distribution of counterfeit medicines."
Health equity in economic and trade policies
The article describes international campaigns that are trying to defend the access of poor people in the world to pharmaceuticals. Both campaigns are calling for the rules of a World Trade Organization agreement called Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property to be upheld. The pharmaceutical company Novartis is bringing the government of India to court for not granting a patent to the company for the cancer drug imatinib mesylate. India only grants patents for medicines that are new and innovative. The Government Pharmaceutical Organization of Thailand wishes to make a generic version of the drug efavirenz. The US government and the pharmaceutical company Merck believe that the Thai government should have asked Merck's permission first before developing the drug.
A controversy has emerged in the last few days on statements made by the new World Health Organisation (WHO) Director General Dr Margaret Chan on the compulsory licenses issued by the Thai government for the production of three patented drugs. Dr Chan was in Bangok to attend the Prince Mahidol Award Conference 2007 held on 1-2 February 2007. Witnesses noted quite a shocking series of events linked to the event.
Civil society and humanitarian groups slammed the new head of the World Health Organisation (WHO), on the sidelines of a meeting here, after she appeared to favour the interests of pharmaceutical giants over the plight of the sick and the poor in the developing world.
Malaysia's Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani has publicly stated his country's stand "that generic drugs should not be restricted in any manner," as generics are cheaper than patented medicines. He made this statement before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), whose session concluded in Geneva last week. He was speaking in response to pointed questions from the Committee?s Chair, Jacob E. Doek, who asked Malaysian governmental representatives how they can ensure that trade agreements do not affect provision of generic medicines, particularly for the treatment of HIV/AIDS.
The WHO Director General Dr. Margaret Chan, has sent a letter to Thailand's Health Minister expressing regret for the embarrassment caused to his government by remarks she was reported to have made in Bangkok that were critical of the compulsory licenses granted by the government for three medicines. The letter follows the deep offence that Dr. Chan's comments had caused the government and particularly the Minister of Public Health. Dr. Chan's reported comments had also caused outrage among international health NGOs and grassroots health movements worldwide, especially groups representing people living with HIV-AIDS. More than 400 groups and individuals have sent her a protest letter asking her to change her views.
Nearly a quarter of a million persons from more than 150 countries have voiced concerns over the negative impact that a legal challenge brought by the multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis against India's patent law could have on access to medicines in developing countries. The legal challenge brought by the Swiss-based Novartis against the government of India began to be heard in the Chennai High Court on Monday - despite an international petition launched by the international medical humanitarian organization Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) last December to put pressure on the company to drop its patent case against India.
This letter represents people living with HIV/AIDS and their advocates around the world who are fighting for access to affordable treatment for HIV, writing to request that the Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) reconsider her comments regarding the Thai government’s decision to issue a compulsory license for the production or importation of three drugs, two for treating HIV/AIDS. They state that she has been entrusted, in your position as director general of WHO, to work for “the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health”, and their belief that her comments last week do not reflect this mission, and in fact work against it.
Mobility is the means by which many individuals and households seek security of income and livelihood: traders move between sources and markets, migrant workers go to mines, factories, towns and farms. Looking specifically at the experiences of women, both as street traders and domestic workers, the authors find that mobility is that is essential to securing these women's individual and household livelihoods increases their vulnerability to HIV. Research found that lack of information on HIV was one of the main factors in making them more vulnerable highlighting the need for HIV education initiatives targeted at specific migrant communities.
More prominent figures have joined the chorus of over 300,000 people worldwide voicing concerns about Novartis’ legal challenge against the Indian government and its impact on access to essential medicines across the globe. They include the former Swiss President, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Stephen Lewis former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, and Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, the head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.