Health GAP Timeline

Direct Actions, Advocacy, and Response

January 1999- December 2000

January - March 1999

A small group of AIDS, human rights, consumer, and fair trade activists, doctors, economists, and journalists from across the U.S. begin to meet bi-weekly via telephone conferencing to research, strategize, and begin to implement strategic activities to eliminate barriers to access to treatments in the developing world. The focus in particular is on US and international trade policies, and the barriers to access stemming from the patent system and resulting monopolistic pricing of medicines. The group decides to continue on-going bi-weekly conference calls to coordinate strategies and activities, and names the network the Health GAP [Global Access Project].

April 1999

Health GAP members educate Congressional leaders on international trade laws and intellectual property rights issues as they impact access to treatments in developing countries. Congressional leaders are urged to consider alternatives to the free trade oriented Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a trade bill introduced by the Clinton Administration and Congressional free traders. One such alternative is an African Trade Bill introduced by Representative Jessie Jackson Jr. AIDS activists join Jackson in Washington-based demonstration to protest AGOA. Fifteen hundred AIDS, labor, environmental and religious activists gather in Washington, DC for the protest. Health GAP members coordinate media coverage of AGOA’s negative impact on accessing treatment in Africa.

June 1999

Members of Health GAP and ACT UP New York travel to Carthage, Tennessee to strategically target Vice President Al Gore for his role in pressuring South Africa to abandon efforts to enact domestic legislation which would make it easier for them to access low-cost generic alternatives to medicines for life-threatening diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Activists disrupt Al Gore’s presidential kick-off campaign demanding AIDS DRUGS FOR AFRICA, and bringing substantial media attention to the issue.

Health GAP members continue a campaign of direct action and media publicity through disruption of Gore's campaign speeches throughout the Northeast, across the Midwest, and in California.

Health GAP members from Essential Action and ACTUP New York appear as expert guests on Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now segment, “Al Gore And AIDS Drugs For Africa.” Activists chide Gore for threatening trade sanctions against South Africa and other African nations that manufacture generic AIDS drugs at a fraction of their cost in the U.S. Activists also inform the public on Gore's ties to the pharmaceutical industry, including key drug industry figures among his closest staff.

Health GAP members provide the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) with information regarding the damaging effects of trade sanctions on South Africa's capacity to access medications. Health GAP urges and successfully convinces the CBC to write a letter to Vice President Al Gore regarding US trade policy toward South Africa.

Vice President Gore responds to the CBC letter on June 25, 1999 by sending a letter to James E. Clyburn (Chair of the CBC), endorsing the use of compulsory licensing and parallel importing of pharmaceutical drugs in South Africa. Health GAP's strategy of pursuing very public and pointed pressure on the Vice President is widely recognized as central to garnering a written statement from the Administration affirming the legality, under international trade rules, of compulsory licensing and parallel importing of pharmaceuticals with international agreements.

July 1999

Health GAP continues grassroots action, media work, and coalition building by targeting the Administration's international TRIPs [Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights]
Plus policy toward developing countries, through strategic actions during media-heavy Gore fundraisers and speeches in Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and New York City.

Gore addresses the NAACP in New York, asserting that the United States has a “moral duty” to do more to fight AIDS. He announces a new $100 million proposal to help Africa stop the spread of the disease.

The U.S. House of Representatives passes the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) without AIDS-related provisions despite protests from Congressional Black Caucus members, claiming it does not address “crucial issues like debt relief and AIDS in Africa.”

Health GAP members provide dramatic and well-researched expert testimony during Congressional hearings, entitled “What is the United States' Role in Combating the Global HIV/AIDS Epidemic?” held by the Subcommittee On Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources of the House Committee on Government Reform. This subcommittee has jurisdiction over Health and Human Services—including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The committee also has jurisdiction over the Commerce Dept. and the U.S. Trade Representative.

Members of Health GAP meet with campaign staff of presidential candidate Bill Bradley to learn about the Senator's views on trade policy/access to medicines. Health GAP also attempts to meet with campaign staff of Governor Bush, but is denied the opportunity.

August 1999

Health GAP steps up its campaign focused on Gore by trailing him on campaign stops, and utilizing the tactic of civil disobedience in an action at the Old Executive Building near the White House.

Health GAP members speak on several radio programs, educating the public on U.S. trade policy and its role in constructing barriers to access to treatment throughout the developing world.

September 1999

Feeling increased public pressure, the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PHRMA) releases misleading press statement that implies their companies are backing away from their legal challenge to the South African Medicines Act. Health GAP researches their statement, and pressures PHRMA to admit to their continued efforts to see that South African legislation—favoring generic importation of medicines—never becomes law.

In front of the U.N. General Assembly, President Clinton makes his first public statement acknowledging the importance of U.S. leadership in combating the global AIDS epidemic. Clinton announces that he is seeking $100 million new dollars from Congress for treatment, care and support.

October 1999

Members of Health GAP and ACT UP Philadelphia lead a march and rally in Washington, D.C. with a thousand people with HIV/AIDS in order to target the United States Trade Representative (USTR). Activists demand an end to U.S. trade policy that threatens, and enforces sanctions against, countries utilizing legal methods for accessing essential medications.

November 1999

Members of ACT UP New York and others take over USTR Charlene Barshefsky's office to draw media attention to upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in Seattle where Health GAP members will work with allies to address public health concerns, stymied by patent laws embodied in the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement.

Health GAP helps mobilize 900 activists to descend on the White House, in anticipation of World AIDS Day, for the “Clinton: World AIDS Day Shame” action. Activists target the D.C. office of pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and the White House to draw attention to a patent dispute between Thailand and BMS over access to an important HIV drug made by BMS, called ddI. Due to lobbying efforts by BMS on behalf of their case, the U.S. government has subsequently supported their claims.

December 1999

Health GAP members organize around drug access and the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) patent policies at WTO meetings in Seattle.

President Clinton makes a World AIDS Day announcement, which details reforms to U.S. policy regarding Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), trade, and medication access. He promises “flexibility” with trading partners to ensure health care crises can be addressed.

January 2000

Vice President Gore chairs a U.N. Security Council (UNSC) meeting on “AIDS as a global security threat.” This is the first UNSC meeting ever linking global security with a public health crisis. Gore reiterates Clinton's World AIDS Day announcement of U.S. policy reform, noting that “the activists were right,” there is more the government must do regarding AIDS in Africa.

Health GAP meets with high-level officials in the U.S. Patent and Trade Office (PTO), the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), and Health and Human Services (HHS) to discuss implementation of new White House policy, and to advocate for the immediate cessation of U.S. unilateral threats of sanctions toward developing countries over drug access (Dominican Republic, Philippines, Thailand, and Argentina). Activists are assured that the U.S. government will send a letter to Thailand confirming that the U.S. will not initiate barriers to the Royal Thai Government’s (RTG) pursuit of compulsory licensing for essential drugs.

Health GAP and its allies roundly criticize talking points released by the U.S. government to the RTG regarding affordable access to ddI. Over the next several days, Health GAP pressures the U.S. government to communicate to the RTG, in unequivocal language, that the U.S. will not punish Thailand if it issues a CL for ddI. After threats of protest at the New Hampshire primaries reach top-level Administration officials, the U.S. government complies with Health GAP’s demands. Months later, RTG begins manufacturing ddI.

Health GAP learns that the U.S. Representative to the World Health Assembly (WHA) of the World Health Organization (WHO) is pressuring hard at WHO meetings to rewrite the Executive Board resolution on AIDS, seeking deletion of any mention of the priority of human health over IPR. Health GAP and its allies organize a media campaign to put a stop to this effort.

February 2000

Members of Health GAP meet with key U.S. Senators in a lobbying effort to amend the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Only days after Senate lobbying visits by Health GAP, Senator Feinstein amends AGOA with language preventing bilateral U.S. pressure that would demand TRIPs-plus conditions.

March 2000

At the behest of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in South Africa, AIDS activists—including members of Health GAP and ACT UP New York—target Pfizer, demanding price drops on fluconazole (brand name Diflucan), effective treatment for the otherwise fatal brain infection cryptococcal meningitis. Activists win promise of free fluconazole for all who require it in South Africa. The successful campaign against Pfizer includes an unannounced but confrontational office visit to its CEO, as well as threats to disrupt Pfizer shareholder meeting where merger with Warner-Lambert is to be discussed.

Health GAP holds second meeting with USTR, PTO, HHS, NSC, where 301-Trade policies are reviewed and argued over. Health GAP advocates for dropping trade sanction threats toward Brazil, and demand written guidelines on new trade policy. Health GAP also demands an Executive Order issued to mitigate inconsistent results of policy-by-press-release tactic of the U.S. government.

April 2000

Health GAP is central to organizing efforts for IMF/World Bank action on debt cancellation and the elimination of structural adjustment conditionalities that undermine public health efforts in poor nations.

Members of ACT UP do a weeklong lobbying blitz of Congress against the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), while working to get a presidential Executive Order articulating a “no TRIPS-Plus” policy.

Members of Health GAP picket Pfizer shareholder meeting in order to draw attention to harmful conditions placed on the fluconazole deal with South Africa.

May 2000

Senator Roth takes Senator Feinstein’s AGOA language and alters it to require TRIP-plus conditions in order to craft something “winnable.” Health GAP and student allies threaten to disrupt Roth campaign appearances. Senator Feinstein’s office joins in effort to try to remove TRIPS-Plus language.

Members of ACT UP chain themselves and their banners to chairs in the House Visitors Gallery during final vote on AGOA bill containing TRIPs-plus language.

With substantial educational assistance by Health GAP, Clinton prepares and issues Executive Order on medicine access a few days after AGOA vote.

Several drug companies announce alleged price reductions for AIDS medicines in Africa prior to opening of International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa.

June 2000

Health GAP co-sponsors, with South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a mass march during the International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, demanding treatment access for people living with HIV/AIDS globally. Health GAP and its allies provide financial assistance to TAC, while others bring organizers to South Africa to assist TAC with on-the-ground organizing. Health GAP works with TAC in organizing delegations of PLWHA’s and activists from around the world to participate in the march.

July 2000

During the 13^th International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa, 5000 demonstrators, more than half of who are African women, march through the streets of Durban wearing T-shirts that proclaim, “HIV Positive.” The march began immediately after a rally where international speakers and South African leaders, including Winnie Mandela and the Archbishop of Cape Town, demand that international agencies and national governments mobilize to fight HIV and treat those with AIDS. A “Declaration of Durban” outlining a plan of action against HIV/AIDS combining treatment, care and prevention was presented by leaders of the demonstration—on behalf of tens of thousands of signatories—to the organizers of the conference and to the head of UNAIDS.

The keynote speech at the Durban AIDS conference presented by Judge Edward Cameron the morning after the mass demonstration electrifies the conference by echoing the demonstrators’ demand for life-saving treatment. The realities of the global AIDS epidemic and, in particular, the need to expand treatment access dominates the conference.

Members of Health GAP speak and present during several conference panels and forums as experts on access to treatment campaigns, international trade law, and public health.

Members of Health GAP, ACT UP, Jubilee 2000 South Africa, and PLWHA’s from around the world protest at a U.S. reception held during the conference, demanding full debt cancellation for poor nations.

G8 summit is held in Okinawa, Japan, where leaders endorse International Development targets to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Members of Health GAP and ACT UP Philadelphia plan and implement demonstrations demanding that the U.S. do more to fight the global AIDS epidemic during the Republican National Convention (RNC).

Aug 2000

Members of Health GAP and ACT UP target Governor Bush's campaign appearances and fundraisers to elicit his policy stance on trade and patent issues affecting access to medicines, the importance of the global AIDS epidemic, and the U.S. role in addressing it.

October 2000

Members of Health GAP and ACT UP continue to put pressure on Bush’s election campaign by demonstrating at Republican National Committee Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

November 2000

Health GAP organizes a journalist conference call on “lies told by drug companies” for World AIDS Day with a six-month post-Durban report. Health GAP coordinates speakers from ACT UP, Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF), and Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).

December 2000

Health GAP implements series of direct actions against pharmaceutical targets offering bad deals in Africa. Health GAP works with grassroots activists in Ghana, South Africa and elsewhere to support the positions of global treatment access activists on drug deals.

Health GAP position paper “Questioning the UNAIDS/Pharmaceutical Industry Initiative: Seven Months and counting…” is presented at the UNAIDS Programme Control Board (PCB) meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.