For Immediate Release 9 June 2011

Contact: Matthew Kavanagh / matthew@healthgap.org / +1 202.486.2488

World Makes Bold New 15 Million People AIDS Treatment Commitment in Bid to Halt AIDS
AIDS Activists Demand The Bill Gets Paid

New York--Governments around the world, including the United States, are expected to endorse a bold new AIDS treatment goal on Friday to reach 15 million people with anti-retroviral drugs by 2015. This comes on the heels of exciting new science that shows that when people living with HIV are on treatment they are 96% less likely to transmit HIV to their partners. The “political declaration” from the U.N. High Level Meeting on HIV is expected to also endorse a plan to increase global AIDS financing by $6 billion per year globally—from a combination of donor and national funding—as part of a plan to get ahead of the wave of deaths and new infections, and eventually break the back of the epidemic.

“A new goal of reaching 15 million people is the bare minimum that is needed to begin to reverse the AIDS crisis by saving lives and preventing new infections. We are very glad to see the United States joining countries around the world to set this target,” said Asia Russell of Health GAP. “Merely agreeing is not enough. This agreement could be the beginning of a real plan to end the AIDS crisis around the world—yet it is deeply disturbing that the global strategies of the U.S. currently include neither the treatment plan nor the funding needed to achieve this realistic goal and that U.S. trade deals may prevent needed low-cost versions of new medicines.”
Activists noted that the PEPFAR program plans only to treat “more than 4 million people” by 2013—a goal that will be reached this year without a plan to continue scale up. In addition, President Obama’s budget request includes the smallest increase ever for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program—0.5% for Fiscal Year 2012, far off track toward meeting the President's own funding promises. PEPFAR country directors in several African have been directed by Washington headquarters to plan for "painful cuts next year."

“We have the tools. We know what works. We can end the pandemic—there is no excuse for delay. The Obama administration and Congress have one year until 30,000 people with AIDS and their supporters come to the International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC. If this bold target is to be more than words on paper our leaders must deliver a bold new strategy to deliver ARVs to millions more by then,” said Paul Davis of Health GAP.

According to UNAIDS by committing to a modest increase in investment now countries will avoid having to pay much more in the medium and long term—while preventing 12 million infections and saving 7 million lives. Activists also voiced concern that while the U.S. continues to roll out AIDS treatment on the one hand, it is simultaneously seeking to negotiate trade deals what would undermine access to less expensive, generic versions of new drugs.

“Real leadership from the Obama administration would require scrapping big-pharma monopoly provisions on intellectual property rights in the Trans Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement (TPP),” said Matthew Kavanagh of Health GAP. “If U.S. demands in the TPP were adopted then countries such as Vietnam—a PEPFAR Focus country—would be required to allow patent monopolies to block generic production of AIDS drugs like so-called “heat-stable” Kaletra, which the European Union and India have rejected as lacking any real invention. These are incredibly regressive policies that will cost lives—the Administration should be ashamed.”

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