Activists warn that with 9m people awaiting treatment, all companies must join and all developing countries must be covered

UK AIDS Campaigners have welcomed the first licence agreement between a pharmaceutical company and the new Medicines Patent Pool which they say could pave the way for increased access to life-saving HIV treatment across the developing world, but emphasised that more must be done to tackle patent barriers to health.

The agreement announced today between the Patent Pool – a new initiative designed to ease generic production of HIV drugs – and Gilead Sciences covers two of its existing products as well as three pipe-line drugs which are in the final stages of testing. The deal is hoped to be the first of many which will create a ‘one-stop shop’ for patents making it much easier for generic drug companies to produce more affordable and appropriate versions of HIV medication for sale across the developing world.

Anton Kerr, Head of Policy at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, a member of the Stop AIDS Campaign coalition welcomed the move;

“By signing this deal Gilead have taken a lead in overcoming some of the barriers which block millions from accessing the lifesaving HIV medication they need. This agreement is an important step in the right direction. We congratulate them and the Patent Pool, and the UK government for their support, but caution that this licence is not perfect and more needs to be done to ensure a sustainable supply of HIV medication for all.”

The Stop AIDS Campaign has been pressing for three years for the creation of a patent pool to facilitate the generic production of HIV drugs. Of the six million people who now have access to lifesaving treatment the vast majority are taking Indian produced generic drugs, made affordable because the monopoly on production was broken and the resulting competition brought prices down.

As patent restrictions on medicines increase – particularly on newer, more effective treatments – initiatives such as the Medicines Patent Pool are vital to maintaining the supply of affordable drugs. A strength of this agreement is the inclusion of two very promising new HIV drugs which are still in clinical development. Once they are given approval for sale, generic manufacturers will also be able to start producing affordable versions for the developing world. Often people in the developing world have to wait years for the latest drugs to become available, and newer medication is often priced out of the reach of the poor.

But Lotti Rutter, Student Stop AIDS Campaign Coordinator stressed that this deal is just part of the solution.

“Gilead are just one company. If we want to get treatment to the tens of thousands of children who are still waiting we need other companies including Johnson & Johnson to stop dragging their heels and sit down and negotiate an agreement with the patent pool.

“We also need the companies, like GSK/ViiV, who are in talks to conclude deals that put people before profit so the generic versions of their drugs can be sold to people in all developing countries, not just the ones they think they can’t turn a profit in.”

Campaigners cautioned that this agreement is far from perfect as it excludes many countries with a population in real need of better treatment, allows only Indian generic production and restricts the supply of the active pharmaceutical ingredients needed to make the pills. Diarmaid McDonald, coordinator of the Stop AIDS Campaign emphasised that this agreement is part of a wider set of moves which need to happen.

“This deal is very welcome but it excludes countries with serious poverty and HIV epidemics like Brazil and China. This deal is a floor, not a ceiling, and we now need to see all other companies reach agreement which exceed these terms. Alongside this countries which have been excluded must utilise their legal right to issue compulsory licences to get the drugs their people need. Furthermore the UK and EC must stop imposing bi-lateral conditions on India through the Free Trade Agreement negotiations which undermine their ability to produce lifesaving medicines and threaten their position as the pharmacy of the world.”

Yesterday, over 3000 activists from across Asia marched through New Delhi to urge the Indian government to stand strong amid pressure from European Commission. At their national training in Edinburgh, student campaigners from as far as Aberdeen to Brighton stood in solidarity with them to express their opposition to the TRIPS+ terms being imposed on the country which produces 80% Africa’s HIV drug supply.

Rebecca McDowell, President of SOAS Stop AIDS Society said,

“Millions of people in developing countries rely on affordable generic medicines produced in India to stay alive. But the European Commission is pushing aggressive policies that will severely restrict people’s access to these life-saving medicines.”

Europe’s attack is taking a number of different forms the most damaging of which is so-called ‘data exclusivity’, a provision which would cripple the supply of vital HIV drugs to the developing world by restricting the use of clinical trial data by generic manufacturers.

Lotti Rutter, coordinator of the Student Stop AIDS Campaign said,

“If Europe succeeds, millions of people could see their source of affordable medicines dry up, as generic companies will no longer have the space to produce or sell them. With the real danger of not meeting the Millennium Development Goals a reality, the EC’s focus on intellectual property enforcement is hypocritical and immoral. It will deepen global health inequity, and exacerbate the problem that millions of people face in accessing life-saving medicines.”

The Student Stop AIDS Campaign has written to Vince Cable, Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills today to demand that the UK government expresses its opposition to the inclusion of data exclusivity in the EC-India Free Trade Agreement and the other aggressive policies which will put millions of lives at risk. The campaign demands that the department publically and privately presses the EC to stop pushing for the inclusion of these harmful provisions.

Cat Currie, President of Edinburgh Stop AIDS Society commented,

“With 80% of the generic medicines used in the developing world being sourced directly from India, it is drastically important that we stop these provisions from being implemented. We are standing in solidarity with those living with HIV in India and beyond to deliver one message to the Indian government: Don’t trade away our lives in the EU-India FTA.”

To see photos of the event click here.

Students arrived from all over the country on Thursday evening , including myself and eight others from Nottingham University, at the Restless Development offices in London. We decorated banners, signs, giant pill pots and ourselves in preparation for the following day. Then all 53 super-excited Student Stop AIDers got onto the coach, and soon turned to sleepy Stop AIDers after (but not because of!) a briefing about the MSF campaign we would be supporting. Briefly, the ‘EU Hands Off Our Medicines’ campaign wants the European Union to remove provisions from their proposed Free-Trade Agreement with India that would harm access to essential medicines in the poorest countries.

Arriving in Brussels via coach and ferry on Friday morning, we were a little blurry-eyed but still full of beans as we were treated to breakfast by MSF and assigned our roles for the stunt. I was going to be a ‘patient’ with HIV, while others were ‘doctors’, and some would be dressed as European bureaucrats – complete with giant masks and big blue hands! I was particularly jealous of my friend Jake who had the (dis)honor of playing the role of Silvio Berlusconi.

The protest itself took place outside the EU-India Summit in the heart of bureaucratic Brussels, and we were excited to find that we would be joined in the stunt by fellow campaigners from Germany and France. The media stunt involved the ‘patients’, unable to access drugs from ‘doctors’ because of a wall built by the ‘bureaucrats’, acting as though we had died. Alongside the role-play we made as much noise as we could by blowing whistles and vuvuzelas, and the chant “Europe, hands off our medicines!” must have been heard loud and clear. Journalists and photographers from the press gathered around to report on our noisy protest. Prominent campaigners and doctors from MSF spoke about how important access to these affordable medicines has been to their work, and postcards from the field were delivered to the summit building.

After shouting our lungs out at the protest, we had some well deserved free time to enjoy some of the best bits of Brussels – the beer and chocolate of course! All in all, a fairly exhausting two days but a lot of fun and hopefully we will have made a difference to what is a critical campaign.

By Phil Fairclough
Nottingham Stop AIDS (steering committee rep for the Midlands)

To find out more about the campaign and take action click here.

The Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria is one of the main funding sources for the HIV/AIDS response. The Fund has a strong record of results in tackling the three diseases and has saved nearly six million lives since its creation in 2002. Thanks to the Fund and its partners nearly a thousand HIV positive mothers have babies born free from HIV each day. It is a success story in aid which we should be proud of.

However, the recent replenishment of the Global Fund has left it dangerously under-funded, putting the aim of delivering universal access and ensuring all children are born free from HIV by 2015 out of reach.

Lotti Rutter, Campaigns Coordinator says: “By contributing its fair share of the $20bn needed – £840m over the next three years – the UK could save hundreds of thousands of lives and give us new hope of delivering a generation of babies born free from HIV by 2015.”

She added: “The Global Fund’s transparent, accountable and results-focused approach closely matches the new government’s emphasis on value for money and effectiveness. We ask the UK government to give their fair share to the Fund and ensure millions of lives are saved.”

Act now to make sure all children are born HIV-free by 2015!

Click here to take part in our action

A short film showing how HIV treatment transforms one woman’s life in just 90 days. Please watch and take action here.

Selinah is alive thanks to the work of the Topsy Foundation in South Africa. All around the world millions of people like Selinah are being helped by the Global Fund to stay healthy.

But ten million people are still waiting to receive the HIV medicines that will save their life. This World AIDS Day, please take our action to call on the government to do all it can to deliver universal access to HIV treatment and bring an end to children being born with HIV by 2015.

This year we have decided to pilot Student Stop AIDS Campaign Hubs for graduates who want to stay involved with the Student Stop AIDS Campaign. These groups will run just like Student Stop AIDS societies at university accept you don’t need to be a student to join!

Rather than setting lots up we would like to start by setting up a few in key areas where graduates end up, so if you are planning on moving to London, Manchester, Edinburgh or Bristol and would be interested in joining one of these student hubs let us know, please email stopaids@spw.org.

If you are not going to one of these cities, and want to set a hub up where you are let us know, please email stopaids@spw.org.

A free residential training weekend will equip you with the skills to train young people, support them in taking action, and generate reports so that dance4life UK can show leaders and decision makers that young people care about the HIV pandemic!

To get an application pack, contact Jo at joanna.seth-smith@spw.org or 0207 808 1778.

When? 30th July 2010, 2-4pm
Where? London
What? Speakout4life
Why? To introduce young people (13 - 21 year olds) to national and international decision making institutions and build their capacity to put pressure on decision makers to create change around development issues.

If you fancy coming along (or even helping out!), we’d love to see you, so please send an email to Jo at joanna.seth-smith@spw.org asap!

The Patent Pool now had offices, full time members of staff and an office and is ready to start engaging with Pharmaceutical companies and getting their  patents in the pool!

This means we too are ready to start phase 2 of our patent pool campaign and start really pushing those pharmaceuticals to join the pool, and our efforts are much needed, as by April 2011 there must be 3 separate patents from 3 different pharmaceutical companies in the pool, and by June 2011 there must be 5 patents in total in the pool.

This means there is a lot of work to do between now and summer 2011 to make sure the patent pool does not fail, and pharmaceutical companies give up their patents in support of those most in need around the world.

Student Stop AIDS Campaign has some exciting activities planned for you at your freshers fairs, throughout the speaker tour and for World AIDS Day, more information to follow in campaign packs.

But get ready for an exciting and busy year encouraging and supporting pharmaceutical companies to join this much needed pool to help provide people across the world attain the life saving medicines they need.

We have gained success in setting up a patent pool when those around us thought it wouldn’t be done, and we will succeed again in getting the patent pool up and running!

At the February training my society and I found the skill share sessions very useful, as it was an opportunity to learn new things and it was taught in an interactive way. The graduate trainers running the sessions mentioned at the time that they could do further training at our universities.

After Leeds new committee were elected they decided they would really benefit from some training so I  arranged for Ness to come to Leeds to run a training session.

On the day Ness provided an overview of the patent pool and Robin Hood tax campaigns to make sure everyone was up to date and fully in the know. She then covered a whole range of issues such as media, publicity and recruiting, as well as giving the societies help and advice on holding a meeting.

The whole day was very worthwhile, interactive, informative and gave the new committee the extra confidence they need to make their societies as successful as possible. Ness was brilliant at teaching and flexible in arranging a time we all could do.

Graduate trainers have so much experience and knowledge which can help our societies. I would urge everyone to get in contact with their grad trainer and organise a session!

To find out how you can be a graduate trainer or to organise some training for your society please send an email to jane.broomfield@spw.org.