Quote
January 25, 2012
“I have worked with HIV-positive patients in many countries in central and southern Africa, but what I’m seeing in the Democratic Republic of Congo has not existed elsewhere for years. The situation here reminds me of the time before any antiretroviral (ARV) treatment was available. Our doctors face serious complications every day that could be prevented if patients received early ARV treatment.”

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Anja De Weggheleire, MSF’s medical coordinator in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the vast majority of people living with the AIDS virus are deprived of lifesaving treatment due to a withdrawal of international donor support and the lack of national prioritization of the crisis. (via doctorswithoutborders)

“‘If nothing is done, it is highly likely that the 15,000 people currently on the waiting list and in urgent need of ARV drugs will be dead within three years,’ said De Weggheleire.”

Reblog, guys!  Spread the word.

(via darksilenceinsuburbia)

Video
December 28, 2011

doctorswithoutborders:

Dear Supporters,

Thank you for joining our call to action urging Johnson & Johnson to license the company’s patents on three lifesaving HIV/AIDS drugs to the Medicines Patent Pool, a mechanism designed to lower prices of HIV medicines and increase access to them for people in the developing world.

Despite continuing to earn record profits and a company credo that calls for putting patients first, on December 19, Johnson & Johnson continued to turn its back on people living with HIV/AIDS in many developing countries by telling the Pool it refused to license its patents on the HIV drugs rilpivirine, darunavir, and etravirine.

Over the past two years, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been urging Johnson & Johnson, and other companies holding HIV drug patents, to take this critical step of joining the Pool. The Pool would license patents on HIV drugs to other manufacturers and the resulting competition would dramatically reduce prices, making them much more affordable in the developing world and allow new combination medicines.

In refusing to join the Medicines Patent Pool, Johnson & Johnson says there is no urgency for making these drugs widely available in developing countries. That’s simply not true. MSF now provides treatment to more than 180,000 people living with HIV worldwide, and is beginning to witness the inevitable, natural phenomenon of treatment failure, whereby people develop resistance to the drugs they are taking and need to graduate to newer medicines.

Furthermore, rilpivirine, darunavir, and etravirine were identified among the key drug formulations needed for HIV treatment by the Medicines Patent Pool, UNITAID and the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS Department.

The fight for our patients does not end here with this announcement from Johnson & Johnson. MSF will continue to press Johnson & Johnson and other companies holding patents on essential HIV/AIDS medicines to join the Medicines Patent Pool.

Ultimately, it is about breaking the double standard of access to essential medicines for patients living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries. For the sake of patients who are resistant to today’s treatment as well as patients of tomorrow who are still waiting for access to improved drugs, MSF will continue to call for real access to affordable medicines.

WTF, Johnson & Johnson???!!!!

(via darksilenceinsuburbia)

Quote
April 28, 2011
“High prices mean patients in poor countries continue to be relegated to second-class care, with no choice but to take older, more toxic drugs we would no longer use in the U.S., and with almost no treatment options when the virus becomes resistant to the limited number of drugs available. By putting its HIV drug patents in the pool, Johnson & Johnson has a unique opportunity to transform this situation and save lives worldwide. Instead, it has chosen to turn its back on these patients.”

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Sophie Delaunay, executive director of MSF-USA.

Johnson & Johnson, which holds patents on three key new HIV drugs desperately needed throughout the developing world, has so far refused to license these patents to the Medicines Patent Pool.

Full Press Release.

(via doctorswithoutborders)

(via buffleheadcabin)