[Pharm-policy] Reuters: WHO to adapt AIDS Resolution

[Mike Palmedo]

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010518/hl/who_1.html


 
 
Friday May 18 1:08 PM ET 
WHO to Adopt HIV/AIDS Resolution
By Stephen Pincock

GENEVA (Reuters Health) - The World Health
Organization (news - web sites) (WHO) is expected
Monday to adopt a resolution on ``Scaling up the
response to HIV (news - web sites)/AIDS (news - web
sites),'' which was accepted by a World Health
Assembly committee Friday.

The acceptance came after debate over a draft
resolution, tabled by Brazil, dominated the World
Health Assembly on Thursday

The proposals by the Brazilian (news - web sites)
delegation included controversial paragraphs urging
that countries be allowed to produce generic versions
of AIDS drugs. It also said that the international
fund for HIV/AIDS established by UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan (news - web sites) should be used to ``make
drugs available at differentiated prices in line with
social development indices and according to the
prevalence of HIV in different regions,'' among other
controversial language.

Brazil is under international pressure over its policy
of producing cheaper generic versions of HIV/AIDS
drugs and making them available to patients. Developed
nations, the US and UK in particular, have warned that
weakening intellectual property laws would limit the
development of new drugs.

But after Brazil took part in a 6-hour meeting with
the US, South Africa, Thailand and Sweden Thursday
night to redraft the resolution, the more
controversial wording of the original proposal was
removed.

Stronger references to the need for ``domestic
industries to be consistent with international law''
was added, among other things.

Although there was further debate among the 191 member
nations of the WHO Friday morning, particularly by
delegates from developing nations who opposed the
changes, the resolution was finally accepted and will
be sent to a plenary session of the assembly on Monday
where it is expected to be accepted as a resolution.

According to a report from Deutche Welle radio, Dr.
Daniel Tarantola, a senior policy advisor to the
Director General of WHO, the new resolution ``is a
turning point in the perception on the global level of
what should be done about HIV/AIDS.''

``Previous resolutions recognized prevention as the
utmost, sometimes only intervention in responding to
HIV. This time we are talking about care as an
additional set of interventions.'' 



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