How to advocate for equal access

How to advocate for equal access to drugs and treatment ?
Resolutions and decisions of important bodies such as the UN Commission on Human Rights are important tools for educating and lobbying
govenments to advocate equal access to drugs and treatment. Very specific and different strategies to reduce the cost of drugs, to improve health
services and infrastructure or simply to call on governments’ obligation to implement the right to health, have been developed throughout the world.
Some have already succeeded in improving access to treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS…Here are some examples:
Example 1: Compulsory licensing
Anti-retrovirals are new: therefore, they are still under patent held by pharmaceutical companies that have researched, developed and are
commercialising these drugs. International patent regulations such as the “Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights” (TRIPS) allow,
under exceptional circumstances, governments to license the production of a drug in their country without the authorisation of the patent holder,
so that generic equivalents can be made available. In this context, the last “Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health” issued by the
World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Doha, 14 November 2001, makes it explicit that “public health crises, including those relating to
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics, can represent a national emergency or other circumstances of extreme urgency” for issuing
a compulsory license. This strategy can create a supply of less expensive drugs, and bring down the price of proprietary drugs through
competition. As a result, drugs and anti-retrovirals in particular become accessible to a larger number of people living with HIV/AIDS. The main
argument presented against compulsory licensing is that if patent protection is waved, pharmaceutical companies, that invest in research and
development, will have less incentive to develop new drugs or vaccines. The pharmaceutical industry also argues that generic drugs can be of
inferior quality, and may increase the risk of ineffective counterfeit products being sold in the black market.
Example 2: Parallel importing
This strategy involves buying either a generic or a proprietary drug from another country where the price is lower, rather than directly from the
manufacturer. This practice takes advantage of the fact that pharmaceutical companies charge lower prices in some countries than in others,
depending on market and other conditions.
In this case there have also been pressures to stop the practice, which is seen to undermine the established distribution mechanisms and pricing
strategies of the manufacturers.
Example 3: Preferential pricing
This strategy involves reducing drug prices charged to poorer countries. At the time of writing, in accelerating access price, reductions of 85 to
95% were obtained for anti-retroviral drugs in 10 African countries. (For a list of countries which have expressed interest in joining the
Accelerating Access Initiative, pleese see: www.unaids.org/acc_access/AAcountries1101.doc). However, even at this low price level, the
drugs remain out of reach for many clients and governments. So further work is needed to continue to decrease prices, on one hand and to
finance them through international solidarity, on the other hand. This is one of the purposes of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria which was endorsed by the Declaration of Commitment, UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, in June 2001.