HIV Patients May Soon Face a Choice: Full Price Meds or No Meds At All

Thousands of AIDS patients across the developing world could lose access to affordable antiretrovirals if one specific clause makes its way into a pending trade agreement between India and the EU.

Let’s help make sure that doesn’t happen.

Cheap, generic antiretrovirals have been critical in prolonging the lives of HIV/AIDS patients in resource-poor settings. Such generic meds make up 80 percent of the drugs distributed by organizations like Doctors Without Borders across communities that are not able to afford the full-priced alternative. Even the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief incorporates generics into its programs.

India is the world’s leading producer of generics. But if the “data exclusivity” passage, seen in a leaked draft obtained by the Associated Press, makes its way into the final version of a pending trade agreement between India and the EU, it could stymie India’s generic pharmaceutical industry, especially in the development of new medicines coming online. The result could be a return to the days when patients had to choose between full price meds or no meds at all.

As it stands, Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers can recreate and distribute antiretrovirals as long as they can verify that they are equivalent to the original drug, according to the Associated Press. But the “data exclusivity” clause will require Indian companies to conduct clinical trials to test their drugs, which would cost millions of dollars and make them virtually unaffordable.

Anand Glover, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on the Right to Health, called the effort to insert the clause a move “to further line the pockets of multinational companies,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

The potential victims of this scenario are already actively protesting, organizing around the “Europe! Hands Off Our Medicine” campaign from Médecins Sans Frontières. The latest actions happened during the most recent meetings on the trade agreement in early December.

But it’s not too late for you to make sure your voice heard ahead of the announcement of the trade agreement later this year.

Click here to sign a petition started by Médecins Sans Frontières to the EU trade commissioner asking for a full commitment to the development of generic drugs. You can follow the campaign at Don’t Trade Our Lives Away, which provides critical information on the fight to maintain and expand access to generic medicine.

Take a stand for human lives over profit margins.

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