[Ip-health] AP: Clinton advises countries to make deal with drug companies

[Mike Palmedo]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020711/ap_wo_en_po/aids_clinton_s_advice_8

Clinton offers advice on politics of tackling AIDS 
Thu Jul 11, 7:16 PM ET 
By EMMA ROSS, AP Medical Writer 

BARCELONA, Spain - An important step in the fight against AIDS ( news -
web sites) in the developing world is for poor nations to immediately
make a deal with drug companies or other countries to provide affordable
HIV ( news - web sites) drugs, former U.S. President Bill Clinton said
Thursday.

<snip>

"Everybody else needs to make the same deal. You either need to make a
deal you can live with the drug companies, or Brazil has announced they
are going to provide generics, and India has announced they are,"
Clinton said. "This needs to be done and done now. And quickly."

Once the deals are made, developing countries need to work out how much
they can pay and then go after the rest from the rich nations, he said.

"My advice is push every country you can to make their deals with the
drug companies. If the deals are unsatisfactory, go to Brazil or India —
the U.N. is certifying those drugs," Clinton said. "Then come to the
rest of us and say 'OK, this is what we need: Here's what we need for
medicine and here's what we need for prevention.'"

Using that strategy will make it much easier for politicians in rich
nations to say yes, he said.





-- 
Mike Palmedo
Consumer Project on Technology
Tel: 202-387-8030
Fax: 202-234-5176
P.O. Box 19367
Washington, DC 20036
mpalmedo@cptech.org