In an interview in The Guardian, the UK’s leading left-leaning paper, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, said that it is the responsibility of drug companies to find a way of making life-saving medication available to HIV-positive people in resource limited countries around the world.
Commenting on the deadlock in the World Trade Organisation talks designed to allow poorer countries to obtain cheaper generic medicines to treat HIV and other “health emergencies, the Labour chancellor said, “Nobody can stand outside the need for action here and nobody can claim special interests or special privileges when people are dying unnecessarily. It’s time that all recognise the responsibilities to help avoid unnecessary deaths and that means we’ve got to get an agreement at the trade round.”
The UK government last week launched an international finance initiative which would double the amount of aid given to poorer countries to £100bn a year, some of which would go to the cash-strapped Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria which is facing an $8bn shortfall in income.
Brown agreed with US Secretary of State Colin Powell that AIDS represented a threat to world stability and peace, telling The Guardian, “I think any world where you’ve got poverty, ill health and disease which is unavoidable, standing side by side with what people see as comfort and plenty, cannot be just or stable…these are big issues which raise questions about the whole direction of globalisation.” The Labour Chancellor went on to add, “a failure to act in these areas offends not only basic values, the dignity of individuals and their right to a decent life but also … it affects national interests.”
Speaking about the high HIV prevalence in southern Africa and the inability of countries to pay for healthcare, Brown said, “this is a terrible indictment on a world which has the technology, the drugs and the resources to be able to solve these problems”.
Despite the Chancellor’s concerns, world trade talks on access to cheaper medication, which resume this week, look unlikely to make much progress. Director general of the World Health Organisation, Supachai Panitchpakdi, described the talks as being on the brink of “imminent gridlock.”
US negotiators look set to reject a suggestion from Brazil that poorer countries be allowed to import cheaper generic versions of drugs in the event of a declared national “health emergency.” However, throughout the talks the US and other richer nations have stressed that drugs to treat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria should be exempt.
The Guardian special report on AIDS and access to treatments in southern Africa can be found here.