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Latest News

Heat-stable ritonavir approved, ending treatment stranglehold for people living with HIV/AIDSread more

 

Make It Happen Campaign Update: UNITAID Board still discussing finer details of the Patent Pool Entity read more

 

New European Parliament Working Group on Innovation & Access launches with support of Access Campaign  read more

 

U.S. health care legislation could limit access read more

 

MSF responds to World Health Organization’s new HIV treatment guidelines read more

 

MSF sends letter to EU Ministers of Health regarding antibiotic resistance read more

 

 

 





AIDS Emergency is Far from Over

Thembisa Mkhosana, a mother of two children from Khayelitsha, Cape Town, is at the end of the line. Quite literally. After six years on antiretroviral drugs, she has run out of drug treatment lines to fight the virus that is destroying her.

Thembisa and others in her situation are in desperate need of newer affordable HIV/AIDS drugs.  Some of these drugs ARE already available and are being used by patients in rich countries. But people with HIV/AIDS in poor countries can’t get hold of them because they are either not available there or the price is too high.  

Patent pool: One solution

A patent pool is one way we could ensure that Thembisa CAN get hold of these existing drugs. AND new AIDS drugs in the future. Right now, UNITAID, the international drug procurement agency, is laying the foundations of such a patent pool.  Read more about patent pools and how they could deliver life-saving AIDS drugs to patients in developing countries

As people on antiretroviral treatment (ART) develop intolerable side effects or start to develop resistance to their first set of antiretroviral medicines (ARVs), they need to switch to a different drug combination.  Read more in detail about this process and the need for newer drugs.