Wednesday, 24 September 2014
Tuesday, 23 September 2014
ITPC COMMUNITY GROUPS INTENSIFY EFFORTS TO BREAK MONOPOLY ON LIFE SAVING HEP C TREATMENT Loon Gangte loon_gangte@yahoo.com [internationaltreatmentpreparedness] To internationaltreatmentpreparedness@yahoogroups.com Sep 22 at 11:23 AM Asian and Indian groups join hands to oppose patent application on sofosbuvir Gilead's licensing practices leave millions in developing countries without affordable generic access
ITPC COMMUNITY GROUPS INTENSIFY EFFORTS TO BREAK MONOPOLY ON LIFE SAVING HEP C TREATMENT
Loon Gangte loon_gangte@yahoo.com [internationaltreatmentpreparedness]
To
internationaltreatmentpreparedness@yahoogroups.com
Sep 22 at 11:23 AM
Asian and Indian groups join hands to oppose patent application on sofosbuvir
Gilead's licensing practices leave millions in developing countries without affordable generic access
17 September 2014, Delhi and Bangkok - In a significant move aimed at securing access to safe, effective and affordable generic treatment for Hepatitis C (HCV), groups in Asia and India have joined together to challenge US MNC Gilead's patent application on sofosbuvir in India. The patent opposition has been filed before the Kolkatta Patent Office.
The pre-grant opposition has been filed by the Asia-Pacific Network of People living with HIV/AIDS (APN+), the Sankalp Rehabilitation Trust and the Hepatitis Coalition of Nagaland. The groups are being represented by the Lawyers Collective.
"We believe this patent application should be rejected," said Anand Grover, Senior Counsel, Supreme Court of India and the Director of the Lawyers Collective. "The patent application fails not only Section 3(d) of India's patent law that prohibits evergreening but it is neither new nor inventive."
Sofosbuvir is the first oral daily tablet for hepatitis C which is set to revolutionize treatment for patients living with chronic Hepatitis C by replacing the standard, therapy of weekly injections of peg- interferon which can have serious side-effects. It belongs to a class of medicines known as Directly Acting Antivirals or DAAs. Sofosbuvir was first introduced after Gilead acquired the medicine on purchasing a smaller company for $11 billion.[i] In the first 6 months of 2014, Gilead had made $5.7 billion on the sales of sofosbuvir.[ii]
The patent opposition comes as Gilead along with key Indian generic companies has announced restrictive licenses that will prevent the supply of safe, effective and affordable generic versions of sofosbuvir to millions in developing countries across Asia, Latin America and North Africa. In India, till generic versions become available, most likely towards the end of 2015, patients will have to contend with the price previously announced by Gilead for its version ofsofosbuvir at $300 a bottle or $900 for a 12-week course.[iii] The time frame for Gilead’s version to be available in India is unclear; although Gilead started filing for the registration of sofosbuvir in developing countries in March 2014,[iv] it delayed filing for registration in India till September 2014.[v]
"Gilead's pricing on this medicine has no relation to the reality of patients in need of treatment whether they are in the United States or in the poorest countries in the world," said Eldred Tellis of the Sankalp Rehabilitation Trust. "The price at $900 per treatment course may sound good compared to the $84000 US price. That's until one remembers that one-third of Indians live on less than half a dollar a day." he noted.
For people with HCV of certain genotypes, sofosbuvir has to be taken along with the existing treatment of ribavarin and/orpegylated interferon. It will also likely have to be combined with other new DAAs that are coming on to the market. A recent study by Andrew Hill and colleagues at Liverpool University have estimated that the cost of a 12-week course ofsofosbuvir could be as LOW as $102. They have also estimated that minimum TOTAL costs of sofosbuvir in combination with other DAAs, diagnostics and genotype testing would range from $264 to $444 for a 12 week treatment course, depending on the combination.[vi] The calculations based on volumes for treating 5 million people a year included a 40% margin for formulations including profit margins for generic suppliers.
Ketho Angami of the Hepatitis Coalition of Nagaland (HepCoN) pointed out that, "Those most in need of treatment are poor, homeless injecting drug users or are people living with HIV who are co-infected with hepatitis C so Gilead’s prices do not mean much on the ground. Availability should also come with easy accessibility and affordability. We are also very disappointed to learn that big Indian generic companies have agreed to take a deal that leaves out many of our colleagues in other countries. This makes us even more determined to break Gilead’s monopoly on this medicine" he said.
"Based on our previous experience with Gilead adopting a similar restrictive licensing strategy for HIV medicines, we decided to oppose the patent in India. As we predicted, once again, many of our members who are in urgent need of effective hepatitis C treatment are in countries left out by Gilead's cynical licensing strategy," said Shiba Phurailaptam, Regional Co-ordinator of APN+. "We urge Indian generic companies not to take such deals that put the lives of our friends and colleagues at risk. Indian companies like Cipla were once trailblazers in providing generic access when MNCs turned their backs on us. We ask them not to become party to strategies of MNCs that put profits before lives," he said.
"The fact that these licenses have even been announced at this stage when no patent exists on this medicine in India is surprising," adds Grover. "For civil society groups working hard to use the pro-health provisions of the Indian patent law, such agreements between MNCs and generic companies are of great concern. Gilead’s control on the generic companies including restrictions on their ability to buy or sell raw materials for this medicine is something that should worry the government as it is likely to impact manufacture by generic companies who have not taken this license. We will put every effort into ensuring the patent application is rejected to ensure proper generic competition," he said.
Contact: Anand Grover +919899439593 and Shiba Phurailpatam +66866000738
Loon
aeras-applauds-white-house-attention-to-tb-threat#
http://www.aeras.org/blog/aeras-applauds-white-house-attention-to-tb-threat#.VCGmBitdWPQ
Sunday, 21 September 2014
Ebola: We're running out of time
Subject: Ebola: We're running out of time
Dear
More than 2,500 men, women and children have died from Ebola and the World Health Organisation has said that the outbreak is “unparalleled in modern times”. Families travel for miles and end up sitting outside overwhelmed clinics, waiting to die, because there is no room inside. Nothing could be more wrong.
In a few days world leaders are gathering for emergency Ebola meetings at the United Nations. But we need them to do more than just talk at these meetings. We need them to take action.
Join me and sign ONE’s petition right now and ask Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to push leaders to step up and act on Ebola now:
http://act.one.org/sign/ebola_africa?referring_akid=a26199039.1965478.gr3QeN&source=conf&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email
This disease can be stopped. We know what to do. We’ve just got to step up, act faster, and do more. Personnel, materials and international coordination are urgently needed for all countries affected by the outbreak.
By stepping up and taking action on Ebola now, countless lives will be changed for the better.
Thank you,
Saturday, 20 September 2014
Monday, 15 September 2014
Monday, 8 September 2014
LIKE HIV AND AIDS EBOLA WILL UNDERGO AN EVOLUTION" #FIGHTINGFOROURLIVES"
History "FIGHTING FOR OUR LIVES"
Bobbi Campbell was a gay San Francisco man who was diagnosed with AIDS in September 1981, making him one of the first people in the US to be diagnosed with the AIDS. On the recommendation of Marcus Conant, a doctor specializing in AIDS care, Bobbi began meeting with another man diagnosed with HIV, Dan Turner. The two met at Turner’s house in the Castro. There, they laid the groundwork for what was to become known as People with AIDS San Francisco. After that, Turner was invited to speak at the birthday party of the late Harvey Milk, the openly gay city supervisor of San Francisco who had been assassinated in 1978. On Castro street, Turner, as well as Campbell, identified themselves publicly as having AIDS. Turner’s speech urged people to do three things: keep informed, be cautious but not paranoid, and be supportive. This was the first of many speaking events for Campbell and Turner.
Shortly afterwards, a meeting was held to form the KS/AIDS Foundation, which later became the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. In May 1983, the first AIDS candlelight march led and organized by people with AIDS was held. The stated goal of the march was to draw attention to the plight of those with AIDS and to remember those who had died. The march was led by a banner with the slogan "Fighting For Our Lives", which became the motto of the movement.
Later that month, on 23 May 1983, People With AIDS San Francisco voted to send Campbell and Turner to the National Lesbian and Gay Health Conference, at which the Second National AIDS Forum would be held.
New York HIV/AIDS activists
On the East Coast, New York City served as another hotbed for the movement. One of the first People With AIDS groups in the east was formed by Michael Callen and Richard Berkowitz. Callen and Berkowitz met through their doctor, Joseph Sonnabend, in 1982. Initially, Callen and Berkowitz attended a peer support group for people with AIDS at Beth Israel Hospital, as well as meetings of Gay Men's Health Crisis.
After some time, however, the two grew frustrated with the meetings, and left to form Gay Men With AIDS. In the same year, they wrote an article for the New York Native titled “We Know Who We Are: Two Gay Men Declare War on Promiscuity”. In it, they put forth that AIDS was the result of not a single virus, but a cumulative overload of the immune system from sexual promiscuity and abuses of the body. Their hypothesis on the cause of AIDS has since been dismissed.
In mid-to-late 1982, Callen and several other people with AIDS became aware of the New York AIDS Network, which met every Tuesday morning at the East Village offices of the Community Health Project. The New York AIDS Network was founded by Hal Kooden, Virginia Apuzzo and a doctor, Roger Enlow, as an open political forum for the sharing of information related to AIDS.
As those in New York grew frustrated from listening to doctors, nurses, lawyers, insurance experts and social workers talk about AIDS, they realized they were hearing very little from the "real" experts. The decision was made to attend the Second National AIDS Forum at the National Lesbian and Gay Health Conference, which was sponsored by the Lesbian and Gay Health Education Foundation. By this point, some of the activists in New York learned of Bobbi Campbell and others in San Francisco. They learned that Campbell and others would be in attendance, and had been calling on organizations that provided AIDS services to sponsor gay men in order so that they may attend the conference. Alan Long, another person with AIDS, sponsored three of the New York activists to attend the conference in Denver.
The Denver conference
At the conference, which had the theme “Health Pioneering in the Eighties”, people with AIDS from around the country met, gathering in a hospitality suite organized by Helen Shietinger, R.N. and Dan Bailey, who coordinated the event. Although an incomplete list, below are some of those who were in that room.
Those in attendance
Bobbi Campbell
Dan Turner
Bobby Reynolds
Michael Helquist (Who was not a person with AIDS, but was the partner of Mark Feldman, who had planned to attend but died shortly before the conference)
Phil Lanzaratta
Artie Felson
Michael Callen
Richard Berkowitz
Bill Burke
Bob Cecchi
Tom Nasrallah
Gar Traynor
Elbert (Last name unknown), of Kansas City
An individual whose name is unknown, from Denver
Debate
Bobbi Campbell took charge of the discussion. He believed in a political network of with groups of AIDS infected people in every major city. It was believed that these groups would then form a National Association of People With AIDS. There was very little friction between those in attendance, with only small arguments such as the terms patients and victims versus people with AIDS, the latter of which was agreed on as being the label of choice. This discussion led to the drafting of The Denver Principles.
The Denver Principles
Main article: The Denver Principles
The Denver Principles were drafted during the conference. They read:
We condemn attempts to label us as ‘victims,’ a term that implies defeat, and we are only occasionally ‘patients,’ a term that implies passivity, helplessness, and dependence upon the care of others. We are ‘People With AIDS.’.
Recommendations for all people:
Support us in our struggle against those who would fire us from our jobs, evict us from our homes, refuse to touch us or separate us from our loved ones, our community or our peers, since available evidence does not support the view that AIDS can be spread by casual, social contact.
Don't scapegoat people with AIDS and blame us for the epidemic or generalize about our lifestyles.
Recommedations for people with AIDS:
Form caucuses to choose their own representatives, to deal with the media, to choose their own agenda and to plan their own strategies.
Be involved at every level of decision-making and specifically serve on the boards of directors of provider organizations.
Be included in all AIDS forums with equal credibility as other participants, to share their own experiences and knowledge.
Substitute high-risk sexual behaviors with lower-risk ones for People With AIDS who would risk endangering their current partners; we feel people with AIDS have an ethical responsibility to inform their potential sexual partners of their health status.
RIGHTS OF PEOPLE WITH AIDS.
To as full and satisfying sexual and emotional lives as anyone else.
To quality medical treatment and quality social service provision without discrimination of any form including sexual orientation, gender, diagnosis, economic status or race.
To full explanations of all medical procedures and risks, to choose or refuse their treatment modalities, to refuse to participate in research without jeopardizing their treatment and to make informed decisions about their lives.
To privacy, to confidentiality of medical records, to human respect and to choose who their significant others are.
To live and die with dignity.
The drafters of The Denver Principles stormed the closing of the conference in order to present their work. At the presentation, the San Francisco activists had brought the “Fighting For Our Lives” banner. The presentation brought the crowd to tears, and it was a full ten minutes until the audience was able to compose itself. The keynote speaker, Ginny Apuzzo, in response to the presentation, opened with, “if those health care providers in attendance were the health care pioneers, then those of us with AIDS were truly the trailblazers”.
After the Denver Conference
After the Denver Conference, four of the activists (Bobbi Campbell, Richard Berkowitz, Artie Felson, and Mike Campbell) began to plan for the National Association of People with AIDS while on the smoking section of the plane. Afterwards, the first of the political organizations planned was formed, called simply PWA-New York. While PWA-New York initially was met with resistance by the Gay Men's Health Crisis, the two organizations learned to coexist.
PWA-New York is noted for designing the first safer sex poster to appear in New York bathhouses. Across the country, PWA organizations became active. In Denver, local PWA members took part in parades and lobbied in the legislature, in general, putting a human face on the disease. In San Francisco, posters similar to those in New York were distributed.
In June 1984, the annual Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco was dedicated to people with AIDS. People With AIDS marched near the front of the parade, with Bobbi Campbell and the “Fighting For Our Lives” banner.
PWA Coalitions and National Organizations
By the mid-eighties, PWA-New York faced challenges. A negative environment, combined with the deaths of many founders, led to the group being disbanded. However, the New York activists were quick to rebound, forming the PWA Coalition. PWA Coalitions continue to exist today throughout the country. In 1987, the National Association of People With AIDS was incorporated as a 501(c)3 not–for–profit corporation to be the national voice of people with AIDS. It was the oldest national AIDS organization in the United States and the oldest national network of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world when on February 14, 2013 NAPWA declared bankruptcy and announced it was suspending operations.[1]
The Denver Principles Project
In 2009, the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) and POZ magazine announced a new initiative called The Denver Principles Project.[2] The Denver Principles Project will recommit the HIV community to the Denver Principles and dramatically increase NAPWA's membership.[2] With a vastly increased membership, NAPWA will be better able to advocate for effective HIV prevention and care, as well as to combat the stigma that surrounds HIV and impedes education, prevention and treatment of HIV.[2]
See also
Think Positive — organization in Lebanon
References
Chibbaro Jr., Lou (2013-02-15). "AIDS group NAPWA declares bankruptcy". Washington Blade (Washington, DC). Retrieved 2013-02-24.
[1] . Retrieved 10 March 2009.
http://www.napwa.org Retrieved 22 January 2006.
http://www.dallasvoice.com/articles/dispArticle.cfm?Article_ID=3818 . Retrieved 24 June 2005.
http://members.aol.com/sigothinc/pwahist1.htm . Retrieved 24 June 2005.
http://www.adam-carr.net/002.html . Retrieved 24 June 2005.
http://www.actupny.org/documents/Denver.html . Retrieved 24 June 2005.
http://www.napwa.org/denverprinciplesproject/index.shtml . Retrieved 10 March 2009.
Teenagers have sex too! So why are we still so squeamish about giving young people access to the services that they want?
http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2014/09/08/teens-want-hiv-tests
Sunday, 7 September 2014
Rugger: DIARY OF A RUGBY PLAYER
Rugger: DIARY OF A RUGBY PLAYER: MONDAY: 8:AM: just from prinsloo sevens.Droped off by the bus at KENCOM .Meeting guys going to work while im on the long road to mtaa...
Saturday, 6 September 2014
Tuesday, 2 September 2014
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