AIDS Conference e-newsletter

posted: 12/07/2010

Sign up now for the latest news on HIV from the 18th International AIDS Conference. This major international conference opens in Vienna, Austria, on Sunday 18 July, with more than 20,000 people. This conference happens every two years and is the first place for news of the most important developments – news about progress on microbicides is expected, which is important for women. There will be much more to find out on every HIV topic under the sun.

Daily e-newsletter

NAM / aidsmap have a daily email newsletter you can sign up for now.

The conference promises interesting and varied presentations and sessions, covering a broad range of subjects in the HIV field, including new treatment, prevention and practice research.

Rights Here, Rights Now

This year's theme is ‘Rights Here, Right Now’, and the conference will have a big focus on human rights, and especially the need for science and evidence based policies for injecting drug use and HIV prevention which respect human rights.

Microbicide News

This conference will also feature keenly awaited results from the first major efficacy study of a microbicide that uses an antiretroviral drug to prevent HIV infection in women.

NAM’s team of writers will report all the conference news you need in the conference news pages of aidsmap.com every day, with links to abstracts and webcasts where these are available. During the conference NAM will send an email summary bulletin each day, presenting a round-up of news, with links to full news reports and webcasts. Sign up now for the daily conference email.
 

Laws Should Not Worsen HIV

posted: 02/07/2010

The ‘Vienna Declaration’  sounds like a half-forgotten piece of school history, but it is brand new and all about ending laws and policy across the world that cause HIV harm. The UN has at the same time set up a brand new Global Commission on HIV and the Law  to deal with some of the toughest issues in HIV. Laws and policies across the world are making the HIV epidemic worse and causing harm to many people. Anti-gay, anti-sex-worker, anti-drug, anti-HIV sex and transmission laws and policies are all the UN Commission’s new battle-ground.
 

If you agree that the law should not criminalise drug users because this makes the HIV epidemic far worse and causes more harm than good, you are invited to sign the Vienna Declaration. The Vienna Declaration is a call from the international scientific community to countries across the world (including the UK) to face the facts and recognise that the so-called 'War on Drugs' isn't working, and causes far more harm than good, particularly in the fight against HIV.

It asks the UN and countries to update drug policy and laws to end this HIV harm, discrimination against people's human rights, and to remove the legal and other barriers to effective HIV prevention, treatment and care.
You can read and sign the Vienna Declaration here  and facebook and twitter it from there
 

Why is the Declaration from Vienna? Well, the International AIDS Conference opens in Vienna in Austria later this month.

This conference is the largest HIV conference, and is held every two years, and is the one where big HIV news on treatments and almost everything else is revealed. 

New - Global Commission on HIV and the Law
The Global Commission on HIV and the Law was set up last month – the secretary general of the UN said “I urge all countries to remove punitive laws, policies and practices that hamper the AIDS response … . Successful AIDS responses do not punish people; they protect them … . We must ensure that AIDS responses are based on evidence, not ideology, and reach those most in need and most affected.”

The Commission has a challenging job – its job is to produce practical steps, based on evidence and that support human rights, that will reduce HIV transmission caused by laws and policies. So it will focus its efforts on ending laws that criminalise HIV transmission and exposure, illicit drug use, sex work, and same sex relationships. Global Commission on HIV and the Law
 

HIV and the Law is part of the Law on Trial  season at Birkbeck College this weekend, and Matthew Weait, a long-time ally of George House Trust and who works at Birkbeck as a senior law lecturer, writes about how the law should not worsen HIV discrimination and stigma, and if laws do this they do not deserve our support.

HIV Patent Pool Launched

posted: 09/06/2010

The long-awaited patent pool for HIV treatment drugs is now officially approved, and the international drug companies will now be pressed to give up their monopoly rights in July. Last night in Geneva, the final hurdle was crossed and the first-ever patent pool for HIV drugs got the official go-ahead.
 

After months of negotiations and expectations, the board of UNITAID – the international organisation set up by European donor countries to increase the supply of affordable medicines to the developing world - voted to set up the Medicines Patent Pool Foundation and give it $4.4 million in its first year.
 

The newly launched Medicines Patent Pool Foundation is expected to hit the ground running in July, persuading drug companies to hand over the patents they hold on HIV drugs so that cheap generic copies for people in poor countries can be made. The greatest benefits are expected to be in the manufacture of drugs in suitable formulations for children and in combining drugs belonging to a number of different manufacturers.
 

"What this means in practical terms," said Philippe Douste-Blazy, chair of the UNITAID Executive Board, "is that formal negotiations with the patent holders can now begin. We expect the Patent Pool Foundation to have its first licenses within a year."
 

This could be hard work. Not every major drug company is going to want to hand over its monopoly rights in a good cause, particularly when it comes to HIV drugs, for which there is a lucrative market in rich countries.
This is not the first HIV patent pool. British company GlaxoSmithKline recently set up its own, but while it has very creditably put in patents for drugs that could help against neglected diseases, it has excluded its own HIV drugs – and it holds some key HIV treatment patents. But chief executive Andrew Witty has said he will consider a UNITAID patent pool, so we wait to see what GSK will now do.

Meanwhile UNITAID is less than happy with another drug giant, Bristol Myers Squibb (see report yesterday), which is closing the only factory making a cheap generic version of ddl (didanosine) for babies. Up to 7000 babies in the developing world depend on this fall-back treatment option. The new factory is not due to open until next year.

Less than satisfactory answer

The Guardian’s Health Correspondent has managed to get an answer out of the drug company. This was their reply:
“Bristol-Myers Squibb takes the concerns of UNITAID about supply of [ddl] didanosine very seriously and is committed to working with all stakeholders to ensure peadiatric patients remain on treatment.
We informed UNITAID and other procurement agencies that manufacturing of [ddl] didanosine 25mg and 50mg at our plant in France will cease in June of this year. E.U. regulatory approval of the new U.S. manufacturing site is expected in February 2011.

To avoid disruption, we preventively built up inventory to twice the level of 2009 demand. We also took steps to ensure product availability immediately upon regulatory approval of the new manufacturing site. The European regulatory authorities are aware of the urgency of the situation.

A very significant and unforeseeable increase in demand of [ddl] didanosine 25mg and 50mg has however created a supply strain on Bristol-Myers Squibb products only. Supply of [ddl] didanosine 25 mg and 50 mg tablets remains available through multiple generic alternatives.
We are actively working with procurement agencies to provide [ddl] didanosine to patients in need and to ensure minimal disruption.”
 

UNITAID – the problem remains
UNITAID is not impressed "The problem persists," said a spokeswoman. The generic alternatives are not WHO-approved and therefore UNITAID will not buy them because there are not the essential permissions allowing their use. "We would like them to ensure they take all the necessary steps to ensure there isn't an interruption."
 

Source

Broken Treatment Promises for Africa

posted: 27/05/2010

International aid organisations are breaking their promises to Africa, to provide universal HIV treatment. This risks undermining years of positive achievements and will cause many more unnecessary deaths, warns humanitarian aid group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in their new report.

Effects in 8 African countries

Their report No time to quit: HIV/AIDS treatment gap widening in Africa looks at eight sub-Saharan countries. It shows how major international funding institutions such as PEPFAR, the World Bank, UNITAID, and donors to the Global Fund, have decided to cap, reduce or withdraw their spending on HIV treatment over the past year and a half.

9 Million Still Need Treatment
“How can we give up the fight halfway and pretend that the crisis is over?” said Dr. Mit Philips, Health Policy Analyst for MSF and one of the authors of the report. “Nine million people worldwide in need of urgent treatment still lack access to this lifesaving care - two thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa alone. There is a real risk that many of them will die within the next few years if necessary steps are not taken now. Also, the current donor retreat will prevent more people from accessing treatment and will threaten to undermine all the progress made since the introduction of ARVs.”
 

USA cuts and others planned
The US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief, PEPFAR, reduced its budget for the purchase of ARVs in 2009 and 2010, and also introduced a freeze on its overall HIV/AIDS budget. Other donors, such as UNITAID and the World Bank, have announced reductions over the coming years in the funding for antiretroviral drugs in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Global Fund is short of cash
The Global Fund, the largest funding institution in the fight against HIV/AIDS, faces a major funding shortfall. The US, the Netherlands and Ireland have already announced that they will be providing lower contributions to the Global Fund. In 2009-2010, contributions to already approved country grants were reduced by 8 to 12 percent.

6 times fewer treated
Overall funding cuts have translated into a reduction in the number of people able to start their ARV treatment, as seen in South Africa and Uganda, and in DRC – where the number of new patients able to start ARV treatment was cut six-fold. Fragile health systems become increasingly strained by an increasing number of patients who will now need more intensive care.

Drug stock-outs and disruptions in drug supply are already a reality, and will become more frequent without enough funding. MSF has been asked by governments and others to help with emergency drug supplies in Malawi, Zimbabwe, DRC, Kenya and Uganda.

More deaths and orphans
“If there is reduced funding, then it will mean more people will die, and we will have more orphans,” said Catherine Mango, an HIV patient from Kenya. “The ones that are positive often need to assist others, like their children. People will lose hope and die. It will be the end. If there are no drugs there is no future.”

ARV treatment is lifesaving but also lifelong. This means that the number of patients under treatment increases cumulatively each year, thus requiring incrementally growing and sustainable funding.

“The HIV / AIDS crisis remains a massive emergency that still requires an exceptional response. MSF calls for a sustained and renewed commitment by donors and national governments in the fight against HIV/AIDS, so that this disastrous public health crisis can be addressed appropriately,” concluded Dr. Philips.

Source
 

G8 - HIV Election Action

posted: 30/04/2010

With the general election under a week away, what do your parliamentary candidates feel about the HIV pandemic? Will they take the action that’s needed?

2010 is the deadline for meeting the G8’s pledge to provide universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

However, 10 million adults and children are still waiting for life-saving HIV treatment.
 

G8 – why are 10 million still waiting for HIV treatment?

We need our politicians to end this injustice and we need you to do two things to make sure they do.
 

2 Quick actions

• Click to complete a quick online action that will email all your general election candidates demanding they support action on HIV
   
• Get ten other people to do it too – just forward this email to friends and family, so we maximise the impact. Tell them why you took action.

We need to remind politicians how important the international response to global HIV is. Supporters like you all across the country are taking action – emailing their parliamentary candidates to tell them about the Stop AIDS Campaign and asking them to meet with the campaign and join Parliament’s HIV/AIDS group.

Your emails will go to all of the people standing for parliament in your local constituency.

Got a reply? Forward it

If they email you back please forward these to the campaign so the campaign knows what each candidate says. Please forward any candidate replies to diarmaid@aidsconsortium.org.uk

You can find out more about the Stop AIDS Campaign here

Universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support is possible. But this won’t happen without your help. Please, take action and spread the word.