WASHINGTON, April 6 /PRNewswire/ -- A breakthrough plan to provide safe, generically-manufactured AIDS medication to poor countries around the world was announced today by the Global Fund, WHO, UNICEF, and the Clinton Foundation.
The announcement was made just as Ambassador Randall Tobias, President Bush's Global AIDS Coordinator, prepares to testify Wednesday April 7 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Programs funded through his office are not permitted to purchase generic medications.
"The President's unilateralism is forcing our partners abroad to combine forces to counter a policy based on ideology, not practical solutions," stated Dr. Paul Zeitz, Executive Director of the Global AIDS Alliance. "It's tragic that President Bush's approach to AIDS is another example of how unilateralism can hurt American leadership. We need to work together to stop AIDS. We call on President Bush to allow purchase of generics and stop trying to cut funding for international agencies that use them, like the Global Fund."
"The World Health Organization's goal of ensuring 3 million people have access to AIDS medication by the end of 2005 is now a step closer to reality," stated Zeitz. "Now it's time for President Bush and Ambassador Tobias to get with the program, or else risk wasting US tax dollars. This plan is simply tremendous news for countries fighting AIDS, and it's exactly the kind of leadership that's needed."
The global agreement announced today is a powerful challenge to President Bush's ideological insistence that US global AIDS programs buy brand-name AIDS medication. Many countries and programs have been alarmed at the public health impact of this aspect of Bush's AIDS plan. Now the US government has an opportunity to join the international community in a coordinated response, rather than keep pursuing a US go-it-alone strategy that was causing delay and confusion in the US response to AIDS.
The Global Fund played a leading role in brokering the agreement announced today. President Bush has proposed cutting the US contribution to the Fund by 64%.
Last week Senators McCain, Snowe, Chaffee and Kennedy, as well as Representative Waxman, wrote to President Bush to urge he join an international consensus that generics are in fact safe and essential to reaching the President's goals for expanding treatment for people living with AIDS.
Global AIDS AllianceCONTACT: David Bryden of the Global AIDS Alliance, +1-202-549-3664
Web site: http://www.globalaidsalliance.org/
