[Ip-health] Rwanda: Activists call for increased access to HIV treatment

[Suerie Moon]

--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
Rwanda: Activists Call for Increased Access to HIV Treatment
Irene V. Nambi, The New Times (Rwanda)

15 September 2009
________________________________

Kigali =E2=80=94 With an increasing HIV epidemic burden in sub-Saharan
Africa, experts from Health Action International (HAI) Africa, a civil
society organisation, have called for increased access to HIV treatment.

According to officials, patent owners of essential medicines should
put their copyrights in a 'pool' which allows generic manufacturers to
produce the exact copies but at affordable prices.

"The patent pool mechanism is an important tool because it provides
an innovative approach to price reductions which will improve access to
medicines for treatment of HIV," Lucy Chesire of Tuberculosis Action
said.

Singling out children living with HIV who are currently forced to
rely on unsuitable adult ARVs, officials also added that, the pool
mechanism would also help stimulate interest in research on new
paediatric formulations.

"Children living with HIV have fallen off the research agenda of the
pharmaceutical companies because they do not present a viable and
profitable market.

It is a shame that they chose to put profit before life, yet less
than 10 percent of the over 2 million children living with HIV have
access to these medicines that help them stay alive," warns Christa
Cepuch, a pharmacist with HAI Africa.

The experts explained that the patent pool voluntary mechanism
increases access to the rather expensive medicines thus enabling even
the poor people, especially in the developing world, to acquire
medication.
Copyright =C2=A9 2009 The New Times. All rights reserved. Distributed by Al=
lAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).


_____________________________
Suerie Moon, MPA
Doctoral Candidate and Research Fellow
Sustainability Science Program, Center for International Development
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
suerie_moon@hksphd.harvard.edu