Tag: ARV
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Access to medicines amendment of the WTO TRIPS Agreement– hype or hope?
By: Ellen ‘t Hoen, Global Health Unit Department of Health Sciences, UMCG Groningen, e.f.m.t.hoen@umcg.nl On 30 January the World Trade Organization (WTO) announced the first ever amendment to the TRIPS Agreement under the headline WTO members welcome entry into force of amendment to ease access to medicines. WTO members were celebrating and some media reported the…
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The HepC Pill Bill
Source : hepCoalition The HepC Pill Bill-An insight into the availability, pricing and accessibility of HCV treatment Introduction to Direct Acting Antivirals Hepatitis C treatment has remarkably evolved over the years. The previously known standard HCV regimen consisted of a course of pegylated interferon injections and ribavirin tablets, which all in all were expensive, toxic,…
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Amendment of the TRIPS Agreement
WTO members on 6 December 2005 approved changes to the WTO’s intellectual property (TRIPS) agreement in order to make permanent a decision on patents and public health originally adopted in 2003. This was formally built into the TRIPS Agreement after acceptance of the Protocol amending the TRIPS Agreement by two thirds of the WTO’s members.…
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WHO Launches New HIV Treatment and Prevention Guidelines
The WHO has made two important new treatment recommendations that will affect all HIV treatment programmes. The recommendations are entitled the ’Early Release’ Guidelines on when to start antiretroviral therapy and on pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV. The recommendations in this guideline will form part of the revised consolidated guidelines on the use of ARV drugs…
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Launch of Moroccan Generic Sofosbuvir: A Victory for the Wide-spread Use HCV Treatment in Morocco
According to the Ministry of Health, 625,000 people are infected by HCV, 1.6% of the general population of Morocco. Of those infected, 267,000 people have active chronic infection requiring treatment. Until recently, the management of HCV infection has been hampered by inadequate and costly treatments. The standard treatment involved a combination of pegylated interferon and…
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Treatment Advocates Denounce Gilead’s Embargo against Thousands of Tunisians Suffering from HCV Infection
The Tunisian Association of Fight against STDs and AIDS (ATL Tunis) and the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition in MENA Region (ITPC-MENA) denounce the refusal of Gilead Sciences to make their drug against the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), sofosbuvir, available to Tunisian patients. “For months, thousands of patients have been desperately waiting for access to sofosbuvir.…
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The first Middle East and North Africa Community Advisory Board (MENA-CAB)
Casablanca, Morocco, 28 June-01 July 2014 Despite the fact that HIV prevalence in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa is believed to be low at least among the General Population, the rate of increase of new cases since 2001 makes this region home to one of the most fastest-growing epidemic in the…
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Pharma Refuses to Ensure Access to Lifesaving Hepatitis C Treatment at Global Meeting
Bangkok, Thailand, February 28, 2014 —Thirty-eight activists from 22 countries joined forces at the first-ever Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) World Community Advisory Board (CAB) to demand equitable access to treatment for hepatitis C virus (HCV) from six multinational pharmaceutical companies. Yet AbbVie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead, Janssen, Merck, and Roche refused to provide a plan for…