Health GAP Timeline

Direct Actions, Advocacy, and Response

January 2002 – December 2002

January 2002

Health GAP takes lead in beginning to develop and plan multinational corporation (MNC) campaign against potential targets denying access to medical coverage for employees in South Africa and elsewhere in the developing world. Health GAP initiates discussions with South African treatment activists and labor union representatives, and with U.S.-based allies, including student and labor activists.

Health GAP mobilizes treatment access advocates in U.S. to oppose "fast track" - Trade Promotion Authority, educating this constituency on danger of bypassing Congressional oversight of U.S. Trade Agreements, providing the Administration broad latitude in "trading away" safeguards which could extend affordable generic drug access for people in developing countries. Of particular concern is the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), which is being negotiated now, and whose rules would apply to all of Latin America, including Brazil, which has for years been implementing a model comprehensive AIDS strategy which includes generic production of AIDS medication and access to medications for all Brazilians with AIDS.

February 2002

Health GAP staff continue to provide leadership among allies to hold U.S. government accountable for it’s lack of global leadership in funding multilateral and bi-lateral response to the Global AIDS crisis. Educates Congressional leaders on need to drastically expand and fully fund Global AIDS programs. Coordinates constituency meetings with Congressional leaders, collaborates with Student Global AIDS Campaign to strategize pressure campaign aimed at increasing U.S. financial support of the GFATM.

Health GAP plans and sponsors meeting in Washington, D.C. with students to launch major MNC campaign against Coca-Cola. Health GAP presents research materials, begins planning for launch of major campaign against Coca-Cola in spring of 2002.

Health GAP coordinates plan for implementing a Satellite Program on AIDS treatment activism entitled

"Time to Treat: Transforming AIDS treatment from right to reality" at the XIV International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain during July of 2002. Works with global treatment activists to determine scope and focus of Satellite. Proposal is accepted by Conference Organizers. Health GAP begins planning with allies globally.

Health GAP collaborates with ally Northwest Coalition for AIDS Treatment in Africa (NCATA) in hosting a benefit dinner to coincide with the annual Retrovirus Conference held in Seattle, WA.

March 2002

Health GAP founder, Alan Berkman, is honored along with Susan Rosenberg, Laura Whitehorn and others as a former political prisoner and for his powerful work as an AIDS activist by the sixth annual Rabbi Marshal T. Meyer Risk-Taker Awards hosted by Jews for Racial & Economic Justice.

Health GAP collaborates with allied organizations ACT UP East Bay and RESULTS for a benefit reception and silent auction hosted by Berkeley Vice-Mayor Maude Shirek.

Rwanda becomes the first developing country to contribute to the newly established GFATM, making their $1 million pledge the largest donation by any country as a percentage of their GDP.

Health GAP works with the faith-based community in generating a religious leadership letter to President Bush calling for $2.5 billion for global AIDS and at least $1.2 billion for the GFATM in 2003.

Health GAP works with allied organization Student Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC) in hosting their regional conference in Philadelphia, a lobby day in Washington, DC, and a rally at the office of Senator John Kerry, demanding $2.5 billion for global AIDS.

Health GAP lobbies the USTR and publicly criticizes the USG position on post-Doha Paragraph 6 negotiations at the first meeting in 2002 of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Council the World Trade Organization (WTO). Reneging on its agreement to uphold the right of people everywhere to access affordable healthcare, the USG attempts to restrict: (a) the coverage of public health products, (b) the role of the private sector, (c) the number of importing countries, and (d) the types of diseases covered. As a temporary “solution,” the USG proposes a highly contentious and tightly limited moratorium on WTO complaint procedures arising from disputes over compulsory licenses.

Health GAP supports and advocates for Congressional sign-on letters calling for increased funding in the fight against global AIDS, one to President Bush calling for increased funding in the fight against global AIDS and others to Congressional Budget Committee leadership calling for $2.5 billion for global AIDS.

Health GAP helps to expose successful attempts by GFATM donor countries well as limiting the scope of treatment f to limit the size and scope of funding proposals coming from developing nations. Malawi is one example used of how a donor country successfully strong-armed a reduction in absolute dollars requested as well as limiting the scope of treatment for their people.

Bush is criticized by Health GAP and others for his plan to increase foreign aid spending by $5 billion over three years. This announcement, which comes just prior to his trip to Monterrey, Mexico for the UN-sponsored International Conference on Financing for Development, is woefully inadequate to address the global AIDS pandemic let alone international development goals.

April 2002

Health GAP stages a demonstration in Washington, DC on April 10 to demand $2.5 billion for global AIDS with at least $1.2 billion for the GFATM. Health GAP works with allies ACT UP, Artists for a New South Africa (ANSA), and Jubilee USA Network in bringing over seven hundred AIDS activists, students, and people living with HIV to Washington as well as hosting Danny Glover and several Members of Congress. A day of Congressional lobbying takes place simultaneously with dozens of Congressional offices visited.

Senators Helms (R-NC) and Frist (R-TN) introduce an amendment to President Bush’s emergency supplemental spending bill. The amendment will add $500 million for Mother-to-Child-Transmission (MTCT) programs in Africa to a spending bill primarily meant to increase funding for the war effort in Afghanistan. Two weeks later, Senators Durbin (D-IL) and Specter (R-PA) introduce an amendment to the same spending bill calling for $700 million to be applied generally to the fight against global AIDS. Health GAP organizes a national call-in day to support passage of the Durbin/Specter amendment.

After pressure from Health GAP ally Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) over the implementation of MTCT in South Africa, the South African Constitutional Court enters a temporary order that the government must begin providing Nevirapine to its pregnant HIV positive population.

As part of Health GAP’s Multi-National Corporation (MNC) campginny Glover and several Members of CongressDS activists, students, and people living with HIV to Washginton as well as hosting aign, a rally is held on April 17 at Coke’s annual shareholders meeting. Bearing a grim reaper, life-size skeleton puppets and a 25-foot Coke bottle balloon, protestors demand an end to Coke’s neglect of its HIV-positive African workforce.

Health GAP and allies ACT UP Paris and African Services Committee (ASC) sends a letter to the newly established board of the GFATM in order to ensure certain policy directives. Namely, Health GAP and its allies call for: (a) prioritizing Anti-Retroviral (ARV) treatment, (b) the purchase of quality generic HIV medicine, (c) publicly communicating the need for billions in additional annual funding, and (d) technical assistance for and transparency in funding proposals.

Health GAP hosts a journalist conference call with ally Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) on April 22, to coincide with the second board meeting of the GFATM and the first grant announcements by the Fund.

Health GAP and allies ACT UP Paris and Stop AIDS Nigeria issue a release at the close of the second GFATM board meeting condemning the level of investment in treatment and highlighting the fact that current disbursements bankrupt the Fund. Despite receiving over 300 applications, requesting more than $5 billion, the GFATM announced a first round of forty grants providing $378 million to fight disease in thirty-one countries. This board meeting also announced the appointment of Professor Richard Feachem as Executive Director.

After intense international pressure from Health GAP and other global AIDS activist organizations, the World Health Organization (WHO) released its list of pre-qualified AIDS drugs. Out of forty-one different formulations added to their Essential Drug List, eleven were ARV drugs and five were for opportunistic infections. The additions include both generic and name brand drugs. The WHO is expected to have a pre-qualification list for CD4 and viral load tests by the end of the year.

South Africa’s Cabinet announces for the first time—in a dramatic shift of the government's controversial views on antiretrovirals—that drugs could help improve the condition of people living with AIDS if administered correctly. The SA Cabinet commits to putting in place a universal MTCT-Navirapine program by the following year. It also announced that ARV medicines would be made available in public health facilities to victims of sexual assault and occupational injury.

May 2002

Health GAP sends an open letter to Dr. Paulo Teixeira, the Director of Brazil’s AIDS program, requesting that the Ministry of Health make affordable generic AIDS medication available for import and purchase by neighboring Latin American countries. The letter is to coincide with demonstrations being held later in the month in and around Brazil to force a policy change.

May 11 marks the second anniversary of the Accelerated Access Initiative, a collaboration between the branded pharmaceutical industry and UNAIDS in an attempt to bring down the price of AIDS drugs to affordable levels. The initiative has been strongly criticized by Health GAP and others for not only failing to bring prices down to levels comparable to the generic industry, but also for not following through on its delivery commitments and attaching onerous conditions on its agreements with participating countries.

Health GAP advocated against the passage of the Trade Promotion Authority (aka Fast Track) bill in Congress, but saw the successful passage of an amendment, introduced by Senator Kennedy (D-MA) and strongly supported by Health GAP, that calls for respecting the Doha declaration on public health.

Due to intense lobbying by Health GAP and others in the global AIDS community, Senators Kerry (D-MA) and Frist (R-TN) introduce a global AIDS authorization bill to fund the global AIDS fight at almost $5 billion over two years—$2.5 billion for FY’03 with at least half going to the GFATM. The “US Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria Act of 2002” also creates inter-departmental collaboration within the Administration to increase governmental efficiency in addressing the pandemic.

Health GAP initiates and gathers organizational endorsements for a letter supporting the Specter/Durbin amendment to the emergency supplemental bill that would allocate $700 million for global AIDS. Over eighty endorsements are obtained in 24 hours.

U2 Singer, Bono, and US Treasury Secretary, Paul O’Neill, travel to various countries in Africa to witness firsthand the devastation of AIDS and the impact of debt on access to treatment and health care.

Health GAP and allies TAC and MSF release statements around the state of emergency declared by Zimbabwe. Twenty percent of Zimbabwe’s population is HIV positive, with 300 people dying daily from the disease. Activists called for the elimination of the declaration’s six-month time limit, and are hopeful that Zimbabwe will take official action to override patents on life-saving AIDS drugs in order to provide generic medicine to its people.

June 2002

Despite weeks of advocacy by a wide array of organizations, much of the time led by Health GAP, the $700 million Specter/Durbin amendment to the emergency supplemental bill loses by a narrow margin. Additionally, at the final hour, due to backroom pressure from the President, the $500 million MTCT Helms/Frist amendment is pulled from the table with an assurance that the money will come later in an announcement made by the President.

ACT UP New York and Health GAP successfully disrupt a Global Business Council (GBC) gala awards ceremony attended by Bill Clinton and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. AIDS activists demand that Coca-Cola and other multi-national corporations pay for treatment for workers living with HIV/AIDS.

Finance ministers from the G-7 countries, meeting in Halifax, Canada, agreed that the World Bank’s International Development Association would provide 100% of its spending on HIV/AIDS in the form of grants instead of loans.

Health GAP members meet with USTR Robert Zoellick to discuss the U.S. position on the “production for export” issue left open by paragraph 6 of the WTO’s 2001 Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health.

The US National Intelligence Council, an arm of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), reports that the number of AIDS cases in sub-Saharan Africa will likely double in five years.

Reports from organizers of the 14^th annual International AIDS Conference to be held in Barcelona claim that Spain has been denying travel visas for registered participants, including people living with HIV. Health GAP issues an alert to call Spanish consulates globally in protest to this act of exclusion and intimidation.

Health GAP and allies ACT UP, Africa Action, Global AIDS Alliance, and Student Global AIDS Campaign stage a protest at the most expensive GOP fundraiser ever in order to denounce President Bush’s recent announcement of $500 million of recycled funds for MTCT programs as inadequate to address the global AIDS pandemic. Three Health GAP members were arrested in the non-violent demonstration and were released soon thereafter.

In an open letter to the Global Fund secretariat, Health GAP and allies ACT UP Paris, and the Critical Path AIDS Project criticize the Fund’s second Guidelines for Proposals, which fail to correct the omission of treatment as a necessary component of funded programs. Health GAP also criticized Global Fund Executive Director Richard Feachem for suggesting that there was no need to worry about US funding.

During the second meeting in 2002 of the TRIPs Council of the WTO, Health GAP publicly condemns the US for backtracking on the Doha Declaration pledge made for access to essential medicines. The US continues to narrow the scope of the production-for-export solution promised last year in Doha, Qatar.

July 2002

Health GAP collaborates with ally MSF to host a satellite meeting on the first day of the XIV International AIDS Conference entitled, “Time to Treat: Transforming AIDS Treatment from Right to Reality.” The event, which discusses appropriate and effective models of care, treatment and procurement of medicines as well as advocacy efforts and policy struggles, is a resounding success, attended by hundreds of participants.

On the third day of the International AIDS Conference, Health GAP and allies ACT UP and the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) staged a demonstration during a speech by US Health Secretary Tommy Thompson to protest inaction on global and US AIDS policy. Activists took the stage, chanted and blew whistles during the entire length of Thompson’s inaudible speech. Immediately afterward, organizers of the protest hold a press conference explaining their action and demanded more money from the US government.

Health GAP met with Economist Jeffrey Sachs and Global Fund ED Richard Feachem during the International AIDS Conference to design a press conference where Sachs, Feachem, and UNAIDS Director Peter Piot endorsed a recently announced World Health Organization (WHO) plan to treat 3 million people by 2005 and cited their newly released data conveying the need for $10 billion annually for global AIDS with the US contribution at $3.5 billion.

Health GAP and allies ACT UP and SGAC stage a demonstration outside of the Conference Hall with a twenty-five foot Coke bottle balloon protesting Coke’s failure to treat its HIV positive workforce. Activists call for a Global Day of Action (GDA) against Coke to be held on October 17, 2002 with coordinated actions in the US, EU, Africa and Southeast Asia.

Members of Health GAP and ACT UP protest at various drug company booths, including Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, and Gilead during the International AIDS Conference to bring attention to the fact that due to high prices and monopoly control AIDS drugs remain out of reach for 95% of HIV positive people worldwide. Activists also protested at the booths of G-7 countries demanding that they put up their share of the internationally agreed-to annual investment of $10 billion.

The Frist/Kerry bill, “US Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria Act of 2002” unanimously passes in the US Senate.

Health GAP supports ACT UP Atlanta in a protest at Coke’s US Headquarters in Atlanta, GA as part of the ongoing campaign to put pressure on Coke to treat its HIV positive workforce.

The South Africa Constitutional Court denies an earlier appeal by the SA government and rules that it must begin administering nevirapine—to reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV—mandated by a High Court ruling won in December 2001 by the Treatment Action Campaign.

South African President Thabo Mbeki announced that his government would seize a US$72 million grant from the Global Fund meant for the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. Despite the grant being approved by the GF specifically for this hardest-hit province, and the fact that the South African government received its own GF grant for US$93 million, Mbeki stated that it did not get the approval from his government for such a transaction.

August 2002

In the report of the Secretary-General of the UN on progress toward the implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, dated 12 August 2002, Non-governmental and activist organizations including Health GAP, ACT UP and MSF were acknowledged by name as having “done much to increase access to health care through advocacy activities at the global level.”

Health GAP and ACT UP, who have been leading a campaign demanding that multi-national corporations (MNCs) provide treatment to their HIV positive workforce, offered provisional support for the announcements by Anglo American and DeBeers Consolidated Mines to treat their workers. Activists publicly announce the Global Day of Action on October 17, 2002 against Coca-Cola and other MNCs.

Due to international pressure from AIDS activists, Kenya reverses legislation that would have made it illegal to import generic AIDS drugs in order to treat its HIV positive population. Ironically, Kenya’s ability to issue a compulsory license and pave the way for generic importation comes at the same time as their failure to acquire a grant from the Global Fund.

Twelve Members of Congress launch an inquiry through the Department of Health and Human Services of more than a dozen organizations accused of protesting the policies of Health Secretary Tommy Thompson. The inquiry includes audits of numerous prevention programs and threatens a funding backlash. This governmental harassment focuses on programs targeting people of color, intravenous drug users, and people in the queer community.

Science Magazine article appears chronicling the pressure Malawi received in a successful attempt by donors to the Global Fund to have it scale down its original GF proposal.

Health GAP staff travel to Cape Town, South Africa to be with other AIDS activists in Africa in launching the Pan-African HIV/AIDS Treatment Access Movement (PATAM). The meeting was attended by over seventy delegates, from twenty-one African countries, and strengthened efforts to bring treatment to the hardest-hit continent. In addition to important strategizing, a declaration was created, with the group committing to multiple days of global action. PATAM endorsed the Global Day of Action against Coke as well as committing to coordinated global protests on October 9, 2002 for the Global Fund and a worldwide mobilization on World AIDS Day.

China’s most prominent AIDS activist disappears in Beijing with suspicions of being detained by law enforcement for leaking on-line information about the spread of HIV in a remote Chinese province. Dr. Wan Yanhai, a former Chinese health official is known for his free speech activism and support of gay and lesbian rights. The imprisonment of Dr. Yanhai spurs an international campaign to gain his release.

Nigeria sets modern precedent by suspending its debt repayments due to an inability to invest adequately in critical social services such as healthcare. Though ravaged by the effects of HIV/AIDS, Nigeria does not qualify for the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative set up by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to provide impoverished countries with debt relief.

September 2002

Health GAP circulates its first draft of a “Presidential AIDS Initiative” (PAI) among various AIDS advocacy organizations in order to get broad buy-in. The initiative outlines the need for significant investment in the Global Fund, affirmation and implementation of the WHO’s commitment to treating 3 million people by 2005, a commitment to ensuring a pro-public health outcome from TRIPs negotiations on access to affordable life-saving medicine, and an immediate and comprehensive debt cancellation plan for impoverished nations. The PAI will eventually become a blueprint for the President’s announcement to Congress in his State of the Union address in January 2003.

In the latest instance of a string of embarrassing public disruptions for Bush Administration officials, US Secretary of State Colin Powell is jeered at the World Summit on Social Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg, South Africa. The WSSD gave only scant reference to the issue of HIV/AIDS, which is gripping not only South Africa, but most of the developing world.

Dr. Yanhai is released twenty-seven days after his disappearance and imprisonment, and one day after ACT UP New York, Health GAP and Chinese human rights organizations stage a demonstration outside the Chinese Consulate in New York. During his incarceration, China admits to a scandal involving AIDS-tainted blood accidentally infecting 1 million farmers in the Henan province and commits to produce their second generic ARV drug.

Health GAP testifies in hearing on Free Trade Area of the Americas as well as lobbies the USTR and other US government officials.

Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) Director Joe O’Neill is booed during a speech at the US Conference on AIDS in Anaheim, CA for speaking about the Bush Administration’s support of abstinence-only education programs and opposition to federally funded “needle exchange” programs.

With the support of Health GAP, the National Council of Churches and Church World Service initiate a letter from twenty prominent US religious leaders to US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick on protecting and prioritizing public health in his post-Doha negotiations with the TRIPs Council.

In anticipation of the Global Day of Action, Coca-Cola announces their intention to treat their HIV positive workforce. Health GAP responds publicly by criticizing their plan that fails to cover 100% of their workforce, requires a 10% co-payment by their workers, and makes an agreement with GSK for acquiring ARV drugs—excluding the use of much cheaper generic versions. Health GAP reaffirms its commitment to organize a Global Day of Action against Coca-Cola.

Health GAP and allies ACT UP, Jubilee USA Network, Global AIDS Alliance and Student Global AIDS Campaign stage a “Fight Global AIDS and Drop the Debt” rally and feeder march during the IMF/WB fall meetings in Washington, DC. Hundreds of angry, peaceful demonstrators march from US Treasury to the main rally held by the Mobilization for Global Justice in protest of the institutions harmful policies.

October 2002

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) pulls information on the effectiveness of condoms in HIV prevention from their web site. The CDC claims they are merely updating outdated information.

The CIA reports that if left unchecked, AIDS in five of the most populous nations—China, India, Russia, Nigeria and Ethiopia—will accelerate to 75 million people by 2010. The report is entitled, “The Next Wave of HIV/AIDS,” and details how HIV is poised to harm the economic, social, political and military structures in each of the five countries.

Health GAP issues a statement during the third board meeting of the Global Fund in Geneva decrying stinginess by US and other Fund donors. Without significant new resources, the Fund will soon be bankrupt. Based on estimates of total contributions needed by the Global Fund to meet the funding need for programs to fight the three diseases, $3.6 billion in new additional contributions are needed for 2003 and $4.3 billion for 2004. A wide consensus among AIDS activists and experts placed the US share at $1.2 billion for 2003, based on a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). President Bush has requested only $200 million for 2003.

Health GAP and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) issue a statement on a legal victory for people living with HIV and fighting for access to medicine in Thailand. On October 1, the Thai Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court ruled in favor of the activists, stripping Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) of its exclusive right to manufacture and market buffered ddI in Thailand. The ruling clears the way for generic companies to manufacture this key AIDS drug.

Due to strong activist pressure on Global Fund policy in the area of procuring medicines, the Fund goes on record stating that programs it financed should seek to buy the lowest-priced drugs they could find, whether they were patented or generic, as long as such purchases comply with national and international intellectual property law.

The South African government publicly announces that it is considering universal access to ARVs. The Cabinet announced that the Treasury and Department of Health was working out the cost implications of providing ARVs to all sectors of society. This announcement is greeted as important by Health GAP ally Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), and the government’s first clear indication it was adopting a “rational approach” to treating HIV/AIDS. TAC also offered its support and expertise to the South African government to help fight the pandemic.

Health GAP issues a statement to show solidarity with Ghanaian AIDS activists for their right to medicines and health care and their right to protest. While exercise their right to protest Coca-Cola on the Global Day of Action (GDA), the Ghanaian AIDS Treatment Activist Group (GATAG) were refused a march permit and threatened with brutality and arrest by the police. One day before the GDA, a GATAG activist was arrested and detained several hours for questioning.

Health GAP and AIDS activist across the US and throughout the world call for Coke to provide treatment for workers and families in Africa in a Global Day of Action (GDA). Students organize at twelve US colleges to “Kick Coke Off Campus.” A broad spectrum of groups execute actions in major cities across the US including New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington, Atlanta, Boston and Seattle. In a strong show of international solidarity, actions take place in ten countries including India, Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Japan, France and Canada.

Health GAP presents at a IGLHRC) P and the (people living with HIV in Thailand. BushTrans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) meeting on the impact of intellectual property rules on consumers of health care services. The event is underwritten in part by the Rockefeller Foundation.

In anticipation of the President’s yet unannounced trip to Africa in January 2003, Health GAP and broad cross-section of NGOs working on global AIDS circulate a final version of the “Presidential AIDS Initiative” (PAI) for endorsement.

November 2002

Despite the fact that access to medicines dominated the discussion at a mini-ministerial of the WTO in Sydney, Australia, no resolution was reached on the outstanding issue of compulsory licensing of exported medicine for import by countries with little or no manufacturing capacity or a lack of economies of scale. The US pushed proposals, including a moratorium on dispute proceedings, which were unacceptable to the affected countries—thereby obstructing a sustainable solution. The issue is pushed off to the WTO TRIPs Council meeting in late December 2002.

In a public address on November 12, in Washington, DC honoring UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, US Secretary of State Colin Powell states that the HIV/AIDS pandemic is “the biggest problem that we have on the face on the earth today.”

Health GAP and ACT UP Paris issue a statement in solidarity with Nigerian treatment activists condemning a meeting sponsored by the US Department of Commerce in Abuja, Nigeria. The meeting is meant to advise Nigeria on its Intellectual Property legislation in a way that could threaten their access to affordable generic medicines.

Ghana receives the first Global Fund grants for both AIDS and TB for $4.2 million and $2.3 million respectively. This funding will allow 2,000 Ghanaians to receive ARV drugs and 20,000 to receive TB treatment.

In a World AIDS Day demonstration of several hundred people, Health GAP and AIDS activists from Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, DC march to the White House demanding that President Bush unveil a plan to address global AIDS. In an act of mass civil disobedience, thirty-three activists are arrested while staging a die-in at the steps of the White House. The same day, the Presidential AIDS Initiative is delivered to President Bush with over 300 endorsers.

Health GAP initiates a sign-on letter to US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick in anticipation of negotiations for a US-Chile Free Trade Agreement. Provisions in the agreement would greatly restrict Chile’s ability to produce and import affordable generic versions of medicines. The US intends to use the agreement with Chile as a road map for broader agreements such as the upcoming Free Trade Area of the Americas.

December 2002

The International HIV Treatment Access Coalition (ITAC), a new multi-sectoral approach to treatment access is formed. ITAC is a coalition that includes people living with HIV/AIDS and their advocates, NGOs, governments, foundations, the private sector, academic and research institutions, and international organizations. Their shared goal is universal access to HIV treatments for all people living with HIV/AIDS who need them, in line with the goals of the Declaration of Commitment of the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS. ITAC aims to mobilize and augment its partners’ efforts to increase affordability, availability and uptake of HIV treatments.

Health GAP and other AIDS advocacy organizations stage White House call-in days to demand that President Bush not go to Africa in January empty handed, and that he announce a bold and comprehensive US initiative that would provide at least $2.5 billion for global AIDS, TB and malaria, with at least $1.2 billion of that for the Global Fund.

Health GAP initiates a sign-on letter to US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick outlining sustainable solutions to the problems developing countries face in making use of provisions in the TRIPs agreement that allow for the production and export of affordable essential medicines. The letter, signed by seventy NGOs, calls for no restrictions on “eligible” diseases, no exclusion of vaccines and other medical technologies, no restriction on beneficiary countries, no overly burdensome “safeguards” to protect wealthy-country consumers, and no overly burdensome procedural requirements.

Health GAP helps coordinate a letter to USTR Zoellick from ten prominent AIDS physicians calling for resolution to the compulsory licensing for export issue being debated at WTO meetings.

President Bush announces his trip to five African countries scheduled for January 10-17, 2002. Trade and HIV/AIDS are the two main reasons for his trip. One day later Bush cancels his trip citing “domestic and international considerations.” It remains unclear when he will reschedule.

Health GAP issues a statement highlighting the US obstruction to negotiating a compromise on the only outstanding issue with regard to access to affordable medicines—compulsory licensing for export. Despite developing countries being persuaded to sign on to a less-than-ideal Chairman’s proposal that included restrictions on beneficiary countries, the US held out to the final hour on restricting the types of diseases for which a solution would apply. Intransigence on the part of the US results in no deal for 2002. To save face, the US proposes a moratorium on enforcing patent rights.