[Pharm-policy] Re: [Ip-health] African and US leaders sign cooperative agreement on AIDS
amir_attaran@harvard.edu
amir_attaran@harvard.edu
Thu, 16 Nov 2000 13:47:39 -0500
Dear Jamie,
With regard to your comment on funding of the Africa Now event that was
held by the Harvard AIDS Institute earlier this week, please trust me that
there was no untoward colouring by Merck of the agenda, any more than there
was colouring by the many civil society and religious groups who were
there. The people at the Harvard AIDS Institute are good folks who ran a
fair, well balanced, meeting. Naturally there was some discussion of using
ARVs in Africa, and both the major pharmaceutical companies (speaking
mostly through Bristol Meyers) and their critics (speaking mostly through
the South African delegation) made eloquent presentations. I can assure
you that in the full two days of the meeting, we heard discussion both
about brand-name price differentiation, and about generics and compulsory
licensing. Neither side of the debate was favored by the organizers, and
the exchange was helpful to everyone in the room.
In the end, participants heard the perspectives of both sides honestly, and
were free to come to their own conclusions without the undue influence of
either side. That's the best of all possible outcomes for such an event,
and though my colleagues at the Harvard AIDS Institute cannot come to their
own defence, I am pleased that they ran a process that was fair to all.
All the best,
Amir Attaran
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Dr. Amir Attaran, LL.B.
Project Director, Macroeconomics and International Health
Harvard University - Centre for International Development
79 JFK Street, Room E505
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
Tel: (617) 496-8712
Fax: (617) 496-8753
E-mail: amir_attaran@harvard.edu
love@cptech.org
Sent by: To:
ip-health-admin@venice.ess cc:
ential.org Subject: [Ip-health] African and US leaders sign cooperative
agreement on AIDS
11/16/2000 12:14 PM
I had no info or heads up about this.... Thanks to Richard Jefferys for
posting this on health gap..., and reminding people of Merck and other
industry funding of the Harvard effort. Jamie
http://www.ama-assn.org/special/hiv/newsline/reuters/11168681.htm
African and US leaders sign cooperative agreement on AIDS
Last Updated: 2000-11-15 18:00:40 EDT (Reuters Health)
By Margaret A. Clark
BOSTON (Reuters Health) - Leaders from 24 African nations
met with leaders of the pharmaceutical industry, US policy advisors, and
academia at a 2-day summit, at which they unanimously approved a
framework document entitled "Principles of Collaboration: When
Confronting AIDS in Africa" that complements the United Nations'
International Partnership Against AIDS in Africa.
The leaders, participating in the Africa Now! Summit, hosted
by the Harvard AIDS Institute, hope that this document will serve as the
foundation on which to build an alliance between US government programs
and African initiatives to counter the growing AIDS epidemic in Africa.
[snip]
--
James Love mailto:love@cptech.org http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
voice 1.202.387.8030 fax 1.202.234.5176
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