Ahead of Global Fund meeting in Montreal, Ban endorses talk of cheaper drugs

OTTAWA – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s office says it hopes a new report he commissioned will help make life-saving drugs more affordable for vulnerable people.

Spokesman Matthias Gillmann said Ban doesn’t necessarily endorse this week’s report of a high-level UN panel that called for changes to international intellectual property rules that keep lower-priced generic drugs off the market longer.

But he hopes it stimulates discussion at this weekend’s conference in Montreal where Ban is joining philanthropist Bill Gates and Irish rock star and activist Bono.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is hosting the two-day event starting Friday, which is trying to raise $13 billion U.S. to replenish the Global Fund in its fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria for the next three years.

“The Secretary-General hopes that the report helps strengthen discussions and actions — by all stakeholders — to ensure access to medicines to everyone, and thus strengthen the global partnership for sustainable development in a way that truly leaves no one behind,” Gillman told The Canadian Press in an email Thursday.

Despite advances in health care, Ban’s panel on access to medicines said “gaps and failures in addressing disease burdens” remain in many countries.

“The misalignment between the right to health on the one hand and intellectual property and trade on the other, fuel this tension,” it said.

A spokesman for the Global Fund, which Gates co-founded, said Thursday it wants to see greater access to lower-priced drugs to fight the preventable and deadly diseases the organization is focused on, but stopped short of endorsing UN the report.

Seth Faison said intellectual property laws and rights vary by country, but “our position is in favour of lower priced drugs, however we get there.

“We support generic companies and we support originator pharmaceutical companies. We need the support of all them to deliver on our mission.”

Some anti-HIV campaigners offered sharp criticism of drug companies and the patent protection they currently enjoy. They also reiterated their complaint that the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal should be rejected because they say its intellectual property provisions will mean fewer drugs reaching poor people.

Canadian Stephen Lewis, a former special UN envoy for HIV-AIDS in Africa, said “the perverse behaviour of the pharmaceutical companies” is keeping two drugs off the market that are desperately needed to fight a particular strain of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.

Richard Elliott, executive director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, said he welcomed Canada’s leadership by holding the pledging conference, but he urged Trudeau to work towards curbing intellectual property rules.

“There is a responsibility on behalf of the host government — and really any of the governments that are pledging money to the Global Fund — to take the necessary additional policy measures that will ensure their money actually goes as far as possible and saves as many lives as possible.”

Jason Nickerson, the humanitarian affairs adviser for Doctors Without Borders, said the physicians in his organization face front-line problems in treating tuberculosis every day. He urged donors at the Montreal conference to consider not just how much money to give, but what they can do to “address how we fund R & D and how medicines are developed.”

Trudeau will be leading an international cast of politicians, philanthropists and celebrities, and has already committed $785 million from Canada.

The event is designed to show Canadian leadership on the international stage ahead of what is expected to be Trudeau’s first address to the United Nations General Assembly next week.

On Thursday, the United States reiterated its $4.3 billion pledge — the largest of any donor — and said it would match one dollar for every two dollars in pledges by other donors to Sept. 30.

Government officials say it isn’t Canada’s job to twist arms to make the pledging conference a success.

“I wouldn’t say that the big focus here is for Canada to ensure that every single country meets a specific target. It’s for Canada to be a role model,” said one official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.