Update on Access to Medicines--Telecon with UNAIDS

[Guest guest]

>Please find a list of actions and issues that were raised. A report of the

>Contact Group meeting on 13 December will be circulated shortly after the

>meeting. Before this, a summary will be presented to the PCB meeting, and

>I

>will send you a copy of this by email. This will include the information

on

>progress on accelerating access presented yesterday. As most of the

actions

>relate to the papers and presentations made at the Contact Group, we will

be

>able to deal with them at this time. If we cannot complete any actions by

>18

>December, we will advise you with alternative timelines.

>

>Please let us know if we have left anything out or if there are other

issues

>which you would like to raise.

>

>We have listed the bullet points under two headings:

> A. for follow-up action by UNAIDS

> B. issues raised by participants

>

>A. Follow-up action

>1) UNAIDS to provide information provided by Senegal and Uganda at the

>Contact

>Group Meeting on drug prices

>2) UNAIDS to provide update on follow up after Burkina Faso visit to

Brazil.

>3) UNAIDS to provide details of Country updates presented at the Contact

>Group

>meeting.

>4) UNAIDS to provide update on process to evaluate the expressions of

>interest,

>including a copy of the presentation to be made at the Contact Group by

>

>Scholtz (WHO), including the impact of volume and modalities of payment on

>pricing

>5) UNAIDS to confirm MSF's attendance in the quality assurance review of

>expressions of interest from suppliers

>6) UNAIDS to report back to UNAIDS staff organising the PCB, and UNAIDS

>Latin

>America Desk to review feasibility of site visit to local laboratory

>7) UNAIDS to report back to UNAIDS senior management the strong

>recommendation

>that the generics industry be invited to participate in the Contact Group

>meeting (notwithstanding the decision by the Chair of the Contact Group

that

>there should be no observers at the 13 December meeting, when the issue of

>observers will be raised)

>8) UNAIDS to provide update on G8 meeting in Okinawa and progress by EC on

>resource mobilisation, including Cleves' presentation to the Contact

>Group

>9) UNAIDS to arrange for participation of clinical staff, eg Jos Perriens,

>to

>deal with technical issues, in future teleconferences

>10) UNAIDS to forward concerns raised on VCT and cotrimoxazole with

>appropriate

>technical focal points

>11) UNAIDS to provide response to question of what support (advocacy and

>technical) the UNAIDS Secretariat and Cosponsors will provide countries who

>wish

>to procure raw materials for the national manufacture of drugs

>12) UNAIDS to provide position on the appropriateness of different methods

>of

>resource mobilisation, in relation to HIV treatment (including loans,

>donations

>and debt relief)

>13) UNAIDS to expand participants in this calls, particularly Eastern

>Europe,

>Asia, Latin America - participants to also send UNAIDS suggestions

>(including

>email list servers to which the News Bulletin and other information could

be

>sent)

>14) Participants to email concerns, issues to be raised by NGO participants

>in

>the Contact Group directly to Jairo Pedraza. UNAIDS to send Jairo's email

>address (done) which is BabaluAye@...

>

>B. Issues

>1) A key issue, as raised above, is the need for the participation of

>representatives from the generics industry in the Contact Group, and to

>ensure

>appropriate involvement of this sector of the pharmaceutical industry as

the

>accelerating access process develops.

>2) There is a need to ensure when talking about developing health care

>systems,

>to include other sectors which may have primary roles in providing care

>services, such as the informal sector.

>3) The concerns from the Latin American region about possible issues

>relating to

>HIV product quality control were raised (this is of particularly relevance

>to

>long term therapy using combinations of antiretoviral agents)

>4) Technical assistance on quality control could be provided by the

>appropriate

>agencies in the USA (FDA) and EU (EMEA)

>5) Technical assistance could be provided from other areas, such as TB,

>where TB

>medicines are procured from a range of manufacturers including one in the

>Netherlands.

>

>

>Many thanks again for your participation and we will be in contact with you

>again next week.

>

>Kind regards

>

>Bai Bagaso

>NGO Liaison Officer

>

>Ben Plumley

>Communications Adviser

>

>UNAIDS

>===

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