World Federation of Scientific Workers Resolution on HIV/AIDS Treatments

The Executive Council of the WFSW at its 71st MEETING,

Recognizing that over 42 million people are presently infected with HIV/AIDS worldwide;

Acutely aware that antiretroviral drugs represent the acceptable standard for mitigating the progression of HIV/AIDS and that antiretrovirals cost as much as $10,000 per person per year;

Deeply concerned about the unprecedented economic burden the HIV/AIDS epidemic is placing on the worldwide healthcare system;

Conscious that in developing countries, where HIV/AIDS is epidemic, antiretrovirals are priced outside the reach of those in need;

Recognizing that in the year 2000, the World Bank announced a $500 million AIDS funding pool, while at the same time announcing that antiretroviral drugs were cost ineffective in the Third World and discouraged borrowers from buying them;

Equally conscious that patented new treatments for AIDS are being priced to subsidize the exorbitant new drug approval process and to produce high profit margins for investors;

RESOLVES

TO URGE its affiliates; Governmental Organizations (GOs), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and grant funding institutions to increase sponsorship grant funding of clinical trials for viable HIV/AIDS treatments;
TO URGE pharmaceutical companies to reduce profitability expectations and responsibly price new HIV/AIDS drugs so that developing countries can afford to purchase bulk supplies;
TO URGE pharmaceutical companies to responsibly seek grant funding from NGOs and GOs to subsidize HIV/AIDS clinical trials;
TO URGE pharmaceutical companies to develop their HIV/AIDS drugs to survive wide distribution to third world countries, with limited access to refrigeration facilities, medical clinics, and inferior transportation and distribution outlets.
TO URGE the FDA and similar regulatory agencies to be critically receptive to innovative, promising and less expensive treatments for patients who do respond to approved treatments, such as antiretrovirals, and for whom the innovative treatment may be a last resort: