1. We are people living with HIV from all over the world
who have been involved in various struggles over the years to advance the
rights of people living with HIV and to increase their access to life saving
medicines.
2. At some point or the other in our professional lives, we
have worked closely with people associated with UNITAID, UNAIDS and the MPP. We
have great respect for their past contribution to medicines access for people
living with HIV/AIDS and we bear no animosity towards them.
3. Over the past few weeks, concerns have been raised about
the licenses negotiated with Gilead Sciences, Inc. by the Medicines Patent Pool
(MPP), which was announced on 12 July 2011.
4. During this time, people living with HIV with activists
and advocates from Latin America, Europe, North Africa and Asia have expressed concern
about the limited geographic scope of the licenses, while others have issued
broader and legitimate critiques of this agreement without misrepresenting the
facts.
5. Even before this, we note that our activist friends and
partners in Asia raised serious concerns about the workings and functions of
the MPP that we believe have not been sufficiently addressed since.
6. Thus, in the face of legitimate questions and criticism
that are not personal in nature, from all parts of the globe, including from
credible and long standing activists, lawyers and other professionals, we do
expect proper and respectful answers.
7. We want answers about many things, but mainly about the
MPP?s role, the agreements it has negotiated and continues to negotiate largely
without advanced public and civil society scrutiny with the pharmaceutical
industry, the potential for conflict of interest inherent in the financial
arrangements with the companies it does business with, and the trade-offs
inherent in focusing on the patent pool as a primary means of expanding access
to drugs.
8. It is also regrettable that in the past few weeks in
communications about the position of civil society and its concerns and
criticisms about the license, that the MPP has chosen to misrepresent those
aspects of the work of civil society.
9. We of course recognise that in the fight for access to
AIDS treatment, difficult choices must frequently be made. However, in the
past, in our experience with many other partners, these serious decisions have
been taken together in proper and meaningful consultation with people living
with HIV and a full, shared understanding of the national, regional and international
contexts involved.
10. An essential credo of the movement of people living with HIV has been that
we must be integrally involved in the decisions that affect our lives. Even on
technical issues - from biomedical research to legal matters - we have never
chosen to surrender our autonomy and independence of mind to other experts to
act in our stead and without our consent and without fully interrogating the
implications of all agreements and deals for / with us.
11. We have worked tirelessly for over a decade to fight the trade and
intellectual property regimes that have slowed and blocked access to the drugs
we need to stay alive. So when we say we do not believe that the MPP has been
granted a global mandate to negotiate on behalf of people living with HIV and
civil society, we direct this at the institution, not the individuals that work
for it, some of whom have been long standing allies of our struggle for many
years.
12. But based on the responses and communications by some within the MPP thus
far -which we had had sight of - we do not believe that at this time and in
this matter it can genuinely exercise sufficient independent or critical
judgment on the license agreement and its continued role.
13. We would like to reiterate that our work as people living with HIV and as
treatment activists has been based on a global solidarity - we will not trade
away the rights of people with HIV in one region of the world for rights for
those in another - we stand together determined and united.
14. For this reason, we support the call for a global meeting of those directly
affected by the licenses especially our activist friends and colleagues from
Eastern Europe, Latin America, North Africa and Asia - independently chaired,
and with your offices.
15. We support the call by the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition
and the Initiative for Medicines, Access, & Knowledge for a formal
consultation, with people with HIV, activists and lawyers and other
professionals with whom we work closely, to address the current license, and
the long-term future and mission of the MPP, in light of the fact that while it
has negotiated one license at this stage, it is apparently due to negotiate
several others by the end of the year.
16. We hope that in the weeks to come a proper and transparent process to deal
with all the criticism and questions raised over the last 2 years and also
since the agreement was announced, will be put in place with our full involvement.
Signed:
Zackie Achmat, South Africa
David Barr, USA
Sylvere Bukiki, Ivory Coast
Thomas Cai, China
Lucy Chesire, Kenya
Lorena Di Giano, Argentina
Alma De Leon, Guatemala
Vuyiseka Dubula, South Africa
Olive Edwards, Jamaica
Tariq El Alaoui, Morocco
Maged El Sayed El Rabeiy, Egypt
Loon Gangte, India
Gregg Gonsalves, USA
Rajiv Kafle, Nepal
James Kayo, Cameroon
Cindy Kelemi, Botswana
Shiba Phurailatpam, Thailand
John Rock, Australia
Omar Syarif, Indonesia
Martha Tholanah, Zimbabwe
Kamon Uppakaew, Thailand
Gregory Vergus, Russia
Keywords: Open Letter / People Living with HIV /
UNITAID
