After an incredible year’s effort on the Push for the Pool campaign from all of the societies, there’ve been some exciting developments in the last couple of months.

UNITAID had a meeting in June where the patent pool was provisionally outlined and discussed. Our March Day of Action swimming pool stunt was the concluding slide in the patent pool presentation!!! Thanks, in large part to pressure from us the UK Government announced that it fully supported the idea of a patent pool and wanted to see the process speeded up, and led the UNITAID board in approving the next stage of development for the pool.

“The Student Stop AIDS Campaign in the UK has played a vital role in advancing the patent pool proposal through UNITAID. Their continued support and involvment will be crucial in the coming months.” Ellen ‘t Hoen, Senior Adviser on IP & Medicines Patent Pool, UNITAID.

So, in December 2009 UNITAID will have vote on a detailed patent pool proposal which is currently being developed. If it gets the go ahead the process of legally binding negotiations with pharmaceutical companies will begin. This is a huge leap forward and without your campaign work to get the government on board and the brilliant day of action it may never have happened.

“This is a great testament ot the strength of grass roots campaigning and the great work of the Stop AIDS Campaign’s ‘Push for the Pool’ and the effectiveness of the Student Stop AIDS Campaigners. Well done!” Anton Kerr, Policy Manager, The International HIV/AIDS Alliance.

So what now..? We have tabled an Early day motion in Westminster which commends the Government’s financial backing for UNITAID and calls on pharmaceutical companies to show their commitment to access to medicines for the world’s poorest people by signing up to the UNITAID patent pool. On the day of sending this newsletter it had 137 signatures on it, which is fantastic but we always need more, so please check to see if your MP has signed (link) and if they haven’t urged them to sign (I have attached a draft letter to this newsletter for you to edit and send as you wish).

On Tuesday 14th July the All Party Parliamentary Group on AIDS released a report entitled ‘The Treatment Timebomb’, looking at the long-term need for increased access to HIV treatment. The report prompted the new International Development Minister working on AIDS to call on pharmaceuticals to sign up to the UNITAID patent pool to ensure that those who need life-saving drugs are able to access them. That led many to praise the UK campaign for getting the government’s support – (reference the quotes). You can read what he said in this Guardian article available here.

Finally that day also saw GlaxoSmithKline announce new efforts to tackle HIV, but it was a small scale effort that we’ve seen many times before. And they also talked down the Patent Pool. It looks like we are going to have an interesting year showing pharmaceutical companies that they have a duty to the world to join the pool. Here’s another article on the GSK announcement, with a great quote from the chair of the APPG on AIDS.

“This is fantastic support! Thanks to the Stop AIDS and student campaigners who worked so hard to make this endorsement happen.” Kim Nichols, Co-Executive Director, African Services Committee.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 at 4:39 pm and is filed under Campaign News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.