EU Blocking Cheap HIV Drugs

posted: 08/10/2010

The EC is pushing for a trade agreement with India which will restrict companies from making cheap copycat drugs for poor countries, says MSF. In 2001, when the Doha declaration was signed, it was widely thought that the battle for cheap drugs for developing countries had been won.

The declaration created a helpful loophole in the medicine patent rules. Indian companies and those in other countries would be licensed to make cheap copies of patented HIV and other drugs for poor countries.
 

Fight-back against drug company and EU
Now Médecins Sans Frontières, is accusing the European Commission of aggressively pushing policies - including a trade agreement with India - that will dry up the flow of cheap drugs to those who badly need them in poor countries.
 

Europe! HANDS OFF our medicine
A three-month campaign, called "Europe! HANDS OFF our medicine", launched today, invites people to let the EC know they object by an easy email system. The emails go to the Trade Commissioner, Karel De Gucht. "If you continue to pursue your actions, people who rely on these medicines to stay alive will be left without a lifeline and many are likely to die," it says.
 

Send an email today

Tough language, but MSF believes the stakes are high and argues that the EC has been doing the bidding of the multinational drug companies (who want to protect their drug monopolies) for some time and in a number of ways. This is what Dr Unni Karunakara, president of MSF's international council says:
'We depend on access to affordable medicines like those produced in India to treat all kinds of diseases. We buy 80% of our AIDS medicines from India - medicines that keep 160,000 people alive today. On their behalf, we cannot remain silent as Europe works to close the door on every aspect of drug supply - the production of a generic medicine, its registration, and its transportation to patients in other parts of the world. So today we are launching a campaign demanding 'Europe! HANDS OFF our medicine.'

Tougher patent rules
There are several issues. The free trade agreement is seeking tougher patent rules than the existing World Trade Organisation agreement requires, says MSF. The EC wants to introduce "data exclusivity", which would stop a generic company registering a copy of a drug without running its own expensive and lengthy clinical trials. This would seriously delay the supply of generic versions.
One example is nevirapine syrup for children with HIV. It does not have a patent from the Indian patent office, which means generics companies could copy it. If there was data exclusivity, children in Africa would have had to wait for years.
 

Generic HIV drugs seized at ports
But the campaigners also take issue with the EC over a number of seizures of generic drugs that have taken place in European ports since 2008. AIDS drugs intended for Nigeria, bought by the European-funded access to medicines organisation UNITAID, were seized in the Netherlands.

EU pawn of drug companies
Michelle Childs, policy advisor for MSF's access campaign, says the EC is doing the pharmaceutical's industry bidding. "The IFPMA [the trade body] has said they want data exclusivity. They have repeatedly asked for this. It's been a long-standing aim of the pharmaceutical companies to introduce this because it gives them the extra period of time."
The Office of the EU Trade Commissioner denied it was impeding access to medicines for the poor. This was what its spokesman told the BBC:
‘The EU has never and will never stand in the way of the production of legitimate generic medicines. The EU is in favour of providing access to medicines to people in need and these negotiations with India do not stand in the way of this. Patents are important, they need to be protected. The European pharmaceutical companies say that the patents need to be protected otherwise the production of new drugs will be seriously in peril.’
MSF simply points out that the issue is not about patents.

Europe! HANDS OFF our medicine

Source
 

European Parliament Votes for HIV

posted: 09/07/2010

In the run up to the largest and most prestigious International AIDS Conference in Vienna (which begins later this month), HIV campaigners across Europe have won a big a vote in the European Parliament for a human rights based approach to HIV. There is now a list of 25 things that should happen next according to the European Parliament’s resolution.
The vote was 400 for and 166 against.
 

After a list of reasons, on page four the 25 actions that the European Parliament and its institutions should now take begins.  It's a shopping list of actions to do the best that is possible to deal with the HIV epidemic for people within Europe and the rest of the world. 

What they voted for

It calls for a human rights approach to dealing with HIV and lists a whole range of things to make this happen - such as decriminalising HIV transmission, and providing healthcare to all, because this is now part of the universal declaration of human rights.

Here is the full Resolution which has just been voted through
You can find the whole debate here – video and printed versions
 

Gay Euro-break Risks

posted: 23/12/2009

A study of HIV rates among gay men in some European cities shows much higher rates of HIV than in England. HIV transmission is a bigger risk for men taking popular foreign city-breaks, because men often let down their guard when on holiday, and it is often difficult to discuss sexual risks, unless you are fluent in other European languages.
 

The study used anonymous oral HIV tests and a simple questionnaire on the gay scene in Barcelona, Spain; Bratislava, Slovakia; Bucharest, Romania; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Prague, Czech Republic; and Verona, Italy – similar to a study on the gay scenes of Manchester, London and Brighton, a few years ago.

Manchester and Barcelona

In Manchester and the other English cities study we found 1 in 10 gay men had HIV (and around 3 out of 10 men with HIV did not yet know this). In this new European study Barcelona had a far higher rate of HIV – 17%, not far off twice the rate in the English cities. In Verona, Italy, the rate was 12%. However in Prague the rate was 3%. HIV rates were much higher in Southern Europe than in Eastern Europe.
 

Men reported different amounts of HIV risk taking in the European cities. 67% of men in Barcelona and by 36% of men in Prague reported using condoms with a casual partner. Men in Barcelona and Verona had the highest number of reported casual partners (a mean of 16 and 12 respectively), with lower numbers reported by men in Eastern Europe (a mean of 6 and 8 respectively).
 

NW gay men importing HIV

Looking at NW England’s HIV statistics, we know that Spain was where at least 52 people got HIV, followed by Portugal (20), France (13) and Germany (13), and Italy (12) and the Canaries (8).
 

Gay men in England need to take good care to neither export nor import HIV while enjoying themselves abroad.
 

Source

HIV bio-behavioural survey among men who have sex with men in Barcelona, Bratislava, Bucharest, Ljubljana, Prague and Verona, 2008-09. Eurosurveillance 48: 41, 2009.
 

EU Warns UK on Equality

posted: 14/12/2009

The government faces legal action by the European Commission for not doing enough to protect people from discrimination at work. This threatens the Equalities Bill now going through Parliament.
 

The European commission says parts of UK law, including provisions on sexual orientation and disability, are inadequate. They fail to properly implement several Equalities Directions signed unanimously by European countries way back in 2002. The EU could take the UK government to the European court of justice.
 

Sexuality : fail
The EU sent the government two official opinions last month, and these include a warning that the law that applies to faith-based organisations, schools and adoption agencies allows far too much discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.
"This could be difficult for the government," said Robin Allen QC, head of Cloisters chambers. "The extent to which religious organisations are exempt from the rules of sexual orientation discrimination is a particularly difficult issue. The government will certainly resist any strengthening to the current law in an election year."
 

HIV Class Actions missed : fail
Other parts of UK law singled out by the EU's equal opportunities commissioner include the lack of a ban on "instructions to discriminate", where a person is discriminated against because of the actions of a third party, and the lack of clear provisions for class actions. Class actions are an important right, particularly for stigmatised groups like people with HIV, who are often very reluctant to make formal complaints. Organisations, like George House Trust, should be able to take class actions on behalf of a group of people to challenge illegal discrimination.
 

"The government has kept promising to address group claims and, as a matter of good practice, lawyers have been saying it should happen. But no one had picked up that failing to do so would breach the EC directive – this came as a total surprise," said Rachel Harfield, an employment law solicitor at Russell Jones & Walker.

UK only EU state to fail on equalities
Last month, the long-awaited equality bill was included in the Queen's speech for a second year and was presumed to be compliant with EU requirements. News of the warning from the commission means the UK is the only European country to have failed to implement two key EU directives on discrimination.
 

"This directive was agreed unanimously by all EU countries in 2002 but, to be effective, it needs to be fully and correctly transposed into national law," said Vladimir Spidla, EU commissioner for equal opportunities. "We call on the UK government to make the necessary changes to its gender equality legislation as soon as possible so as to fully comply with the EU rules."
 

Two months to answer
The government has two months to respond. The general election has to be held within the next six months and Parliament has to finish all business about a month before the election. A spokesman for the government's Equalities Office said: "We take our European legal obligations seriously. We will be studying the reasoned opinions carefully and will reply to the commission in the new year. The equality bill will be continuing its progress through parliament during the fifth session."
 

The criticism will embarrass the government. The bill, which replaces nine existing laws and more than 100 other measures, was intended to end this patchwork mess with a single law.
 

"One of the criticisms of the existing equality legislation is that there are too many pieces of legislation," said Harfield. "The equality bill is supposed to be a consolidation – the last thing the government would want is to introduce an equality bill as it stands, and then have to introduce new legislation further down the line. That would make a mockery of what the bill is supposed to do."
 

Multiple discriminations : Fail

Experts have welcomed many of the bill's provisions, but some see it as a "missed opportunity" for failing to develop the law on equal pay or to allow claims with more than two grounds. This is another issue that affects people with HIV. Many people with HIV tick several equality boxes and discrimination may be because of HIV (disability), sexuality, ethnicity, and gender. Often discrimination may be for more than one of these reasons, but to make a claim at present you can only pick one. That choice is a gamble and Europe says there is no need for this.
 

Allen said: "One of the biggest issues with the equality bill is the attempt to redraw the lines between gay people and evangelicals – there will be concerns that any further demands for changes could interfere with the legislative process."
 

Source

Prevention Priority in Europe

posted: 13/11/2009

Prevention looks set to be the major theme of the 12th European AIDS Conference, which officially opened in Cologne, Germany, on November 11th.

Launching the conference to the media, Prof. Francoise Barre-Sinoussi said that preventing HIV from establishing itself in individuals was now one of the priorities of basic research into the virus. And Prof. Jurgen Rockstroh of Bonn University highlighted that 50% of HIV infections are undiagnosed in Europe.

Reducing the amount of undiagnosed HIV and providing HIV treatment and care would improve health outcomes and help prevent new infections, he told the media.

Basic research: better drugs, better prevention

Over 4000 people are in Cologne to learn about recent developments in Europe’s HIV epidemic.

Current HIV treatment is highly effective and doctors are increasingly hopeful that patients in Europe have the chance to live a near-normal lifespan. Prof. Barre-Sinoussi said that one of the main objectives of basic research into HIV now was to find new targets for antiretroviral drugs, and even ways of eradicating HIV infection.

She suggested that research into so-called “elite controllers” – rare HIV-positive people who don’t get HIV symptoms of the infection and have a very low viral load – could improve both HIV treatment and help with prevention.

Undiagnosed HIV in Europe

The importance of testing and being diagnosed soon enough was clear during Prof. Rockstroh’s summary of the conference.

Approximately half of all HIV infections in Europe are undiagnosed, this figure increasing to 79% in some Eastern European countries.

More HIV testing is essential if we are to control the European HIV epidemic, said Prof. Rockstroh. However, laws criminalising HIV transmission and exposure, and the high levels of HIV stigma in some countries are serious obstacles discouraging people from testing.

Other key themes of the conference include:
HIV and aging
HIV worsens diseases of aging, such as heart, kidney and liver disease. HIV treatment can help reduce the risks, but only if you know your status.

Access to treatment
Around 80% of people in richer European countries are taking anti-HIV drugs, but only 5% in Eastern European countries where the epidemic is far worse. This Cologne conference is setting the scene for the International AIDS Conference in Vienna in 2010 which will focus on Eastern Europe.

Co-infections
A third of people with HIV in western Europe are co-infected with hepatitis C virus, but this rises to a frightening 70% in Eastern Europe where injecting drug use is fuelling HIV and hepatitis epidemics. There is an urgent need for new anti-hepatitis C therapies, but there has been little research into new drugs for people with co-infection. A special conference session will consider possible ways forward.

Providing the best possible care
New European HIV treatment guidelines will be launched at the conference. These will cover antiretroviral treatment, medical monitoring and the treatment of hepatitis co-infections.