[Ip-health] France gives public support to Thai CLs

[Khalil Elouardighi - Act Up-Paris]

[Official communiqu=E9 on the website of the French Foreign Affairs Ministr=
y ;
unofficial translation into English below. Khalil.]

http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/actions-france_830/financements-innovants-=
d
u-developpement_14483/facilite-internationale-achat-medicaments_14484/recou=
r
s-aux-licences-obligatoires-du-gouvernement-thailandais-pour-deux-anti-retr=
o
viraux-contre-vih-sida-26.03.07_48047.html

Recours aux licences obligatoires du gouvernement tha=EFlandais pour deux
anti-r=E9troviraux contre le VIH/SIDA / Communiqu=E9 du ministre des Affair=
es
=E9trang=E8res (26 mars 2007)

M. Philippe Douste-Blazy, ministre fran=E7ais des Affaires =E9trang=E8res,
Pr=E9sident du Conseil d=B9administration d=B9UNITAID, apporte son soutien =
aux
autorit=E9s tha=EFlandaises pour leur d=E9cision de faire usage, dans le ca=
dre de
la lutte contre le SIDA, du droit octroy=E9 aux pays en d=E9veloppement par
l=B9Organisation Mondiale du Commerce de se procurer des versions g=E9n=E9r=
iques
de m=E9dicaments anti-r=E9troviraux, afin d=B9en faire baisser les prix et =
de
soigner davantage de malades atteints du SIDA.

Par cette d=E9cision, la Tha=EFlande devient le premier pays en d=E9veloppe=
ment =E0
mettre en application l=B9accord de l=B9OMC de novembre 2001 sur la Sant=E9
Publique et les Aspects des Droits de Propri=E9t=E9 Intellectuelle li=E9s a=
u
Commerce. Cet accord, portant sur l=B9acc=E8s aux m=E9dicaments, et en fave=
ur
duquel la France s=B9=E9tait fortement mobilis=E9e en 2001, repr=E9sente un=
 outil
essentiel pour une mondialisation ma=EEtris=E9e.

A travers UNITAID et la contribution de solidarit=E9 sur les billets d=B9av=
ion,
la France est, elle aussi, fortement engag=E9e pour assurer l=B9acc=E8s des
malades du sida des pays pauvres aux m=E9dicaments anti-VIH.

Les deux m=E9dicaments contre le SIDA que la Tha=EFlande souhaite se procur=
er
dor=E9navant sous forme g=E9n=E9rique font partie des m=E9dicaments priorit=
aires
dont UNITAID vise =E0 faciliter l=B9acc=E8s. En effet, ces deux m=E9dicamen=
ts, le
lopinavir et l=B9efavirenz, sont ceux que l=B9Organisation Mondiale de la S=
ant=E9
recommande pour soigner les malades dont le virus est devenu r=E9sistant =
=E0 un
premier traitement anti-VIH. Or, sans deuxi=E8me traitement, ces millions d=
e
malades sont condamn=E9s =E0 d=E9c=E9der rapidement du SIDA. En France, ce =
sont 80%
des malades qui doivent passer =E0 un deuxi=E8me traitement dans les trois =
ans
suivant le d=E9but du premier.

UNITAID, dont la mission est de contribuer =E0 faciliter l=B9acc=E8s des
populations des pays en d=E9veloppement aux traitements contre le VIH/SIDA,=
 le
paludisme et la tuberculose en r=E9duisant le prix des m=E9dicaments et des
moyens de diagnostic de qualit=E9, entend soutenir le recours par les
diff=E9rents pays partenaires =E0 des licences obligatoires, ou d=B9autres
flexibilit=E9s, conform=E9ment =E0 la D=E9claration de Doha sur la Sant=E9 =
Publique et
les Aspects des Droits de Propri=E9t=E9 Intellectuelle li=E9s au Commerce.

Le Pr=E9sident de la R=E9publique fran=E7aise, dans son message du 15 ao=FB=
t 2006
aux participants =E0 la Conf=E9rence mondiale sur le SIDA =E0 Toronto, a ra=
ppel=E9,
concernant les m=E9dicaments g=E9n=E9riques, que =AB la communaut=E9 intern=
ationale
s=B9est engag=E9e =E0 en faciliter l=B9acc=E8s. Interdisons-nous d=E8s lors=
 de demander
aux pays pauvres de renoncer dans des accords bilat=E9raux =E0 ce que les
accords de l=B9OMC ont pu leur apporter =BB.


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Mr Philippe Douste-Blazy, French minister for Foreign Affairs, chair of the
Board of UNITAID, expresses his support to the authorities of Thailand for
their decision to make use, in the fight against AIDS, of the right granted
to developing countries by the World Trade Organization to procure generic
version of HIV medicines, in order to reduce their prices and treat more
people living with HIV/AIDS.
With this decision, Thailand is the first developing country to put in
practice the WTO agreement of November 2001 on Public Health and
Trade-Related Intellectual Property. This agreement on access to medicines,
in the advent of which France played an important role in 2001, constitutes
an essential tool for balancing globalization.
Like Thailand, France is also very committed to ensure universal access to
HIV medication, through the creation of a solidarity contribution on airlin=
e
tickets and UNITAID.
The two AIDS medicines which Thailand is now going to procure as generics
are part of the priority medicines to which UNITAID is aiming to facilitate
access. Indeed, these two medicines, lopinavir and efavirenz, are those
which the World Health Organization recommends for the treatment of people
living with HIV whose virus has grown resistant to a first anti-HIV drug
cocktail. Without a second treatment, these millions of people would be
doomed to succumb rapidly from AIDS. In France, 80% of AIDS patients need t=
o
move on to a second treatment in the three years following initiation of
their first treatment.
UNITAID, whose mission is to contribute to developing countries=B9 access t=
o
quality medicines and diagnostics against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and
malaria, by reducing prices thereof, supports the use of compulsory
licensing and the other flexibilities in the WTO Doha Declaration  on Publi=
c
Health and Trade-Related Intellectual Property.
In his address to the World Aids Conference in Toronto on August 15 2006,
French President Jacques Chirac reminded the international community that =
=AB
the international community has committed to facilitating access to generic
medicines. Let us stop ourselves from demanding poor countries renounce in
bilateral trade agreements what the WTO has allowed them =BB.