PHA-Exchange> Global HIV/AIDS support from G8 countries

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> Subject:  M: Global HIV/AIDS support from G8 countries
> 
> G8-summit-health-drugs: G8 nations pledge cheaper
> drugs for poor but charity slams plans
> 
> Agence France-Presse - June 2, 2003
> 
> EVIAN, France, June 2 (AFP) - Group of Eight leaders
> pledged
> Monday to make cheaper drugs for diseases such as
> HIV/AIDS more
> easily available in developing nations, but faced
> criticism from
> aid groups for failing to take specific action.
> 
> In a "health action plan" released at the end of their
> summit at
> the French spa town of Evian, the industrialised
> nations' club
> promised to boost the distribution of cheap medicines
> in a "fair,
> efficient and sustainable" way.
> 
> Welcoming drugs companies' efforts to make discounted
> drugs more
> available, the G8 leaders said they would "strongly
> support"
> further efforts, although the paper contained little
> in the way
> of specific policies.
> 
> Additionally, the statement backed a moratorium on
> challenging
> countries under World Trade Organisation rules over
> the
> production of generic versions of patented drugs.
> 
> Pharmaceutical multinationals have long been
> criticised by health
> activists for the prices they charge for HIV/AIDS
> drugs and for
> their efforts to prevent generic copies of the
> medicines being
> made.
> 
> However British aid agency Oxfam slammed the G8
> declaration as
> little more than "a bland statement of intent".
> 
> "The issue of patents is the most significant running
> sore in the
> health debate, and they have completely skirted it,"
> said Oxfam
> spokesman Phil Twyford.
> 
> Last month Britain's GlaxoSmithKline, the world's
> leading
> supplier of HIV/AIDS drugs, which has faced particular
> criticism,
> slashed the price of its top anti-retroviral treatment
> for the
> world's poorest countries by almost half.
>