access to medicines

As the International AIDS Conference wrapped up today, international aid agency Oxfam praised the advocates and the scientists who have ignited momentum to shift from “fighting AIDS” to “ending AIDS,” and urged governments and the pharmaceutical industry to make this vision a reality.

Despite commitment to end AIDS, the US government is introducing stronger intellectual property rules through trade agreements and bilateral pressure that will undermine the fight against AIDS by devastating the ability of developing countries to access affordable anti-retroviral medicines.

Oxfam strongly welcomes the European Parliament’s vote against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) by a majority of 478 votes out of 682. ACTA would have posed a serious

Governments which have failed to pay their contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis are guilty of breaking their own promise to extend HIV treatment just months after they made it, Oxfam said today.

New Oxfam report: The proliferation of substandard medicines in poor countries is being used by rich countries as an excuse to tighten intellectual property rules, boosting the profits of large pharmaceutical companies while making it harder for poor people to get access to the medicines they need.

Poor-quality, or “substandard”, medicines threaten patients and public health in developing countries.

Vaccines have contributed to some of the greatest public health successes of the past century, averting 2.5 million child deaths every year and millions more bouts of illness and dis

World leaders made no real commitments to ensure universal access to prevention, treatment and care for AIDS at this week's International AIDS conference in Vienna.

As the next round of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations get underway this week, Oxfam has called on the negotiating parties to ensure the Agreement does not erect new barriers that prevent generic medicines from reaching poor countries.

The European Union is contradicting world trade rules by putting the interests of big drug companies before the 2 billion people in the world who cannot access essential medicines, according to a new report issued today by Oxfam International and Health Action International Europe.