Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund, has been circulating a proposal among select partner organizations (UNITAID, UNDP, UNICEF, GAVI, and the World Bank) proposing a Blue Ribbon Task Force to address pricing and access barriers in middle-income countries primarily through a recalibrated tiered-pricing framework. Previous drafts have received major civil society and activist critiques at ICASA, at board meetings of the Global Fund and UNITAID, and in analyses of leaked documents. Collectively, our voices have not been strong enough objecting to a proposal that would ultimately vest control over medicines prices in industry, which has been fighting for a global platform for this stale and discredited idea for over a decade. Affected governments, people living with diseases, and civil society more generally have been excluded from the process. Many more promising ideas, including use of intellectual property flexibilities allowed under international law, are not yet included in the latest draft of the Dybul proposal.
Over 50 people from various networks have contributed to the drafting of this letter demanding that the initiative be dropped, which now need broad distribution and sign-ons. References to additional information are provided below below my signature.
Claire Cassedy from KEI has kindly agreed to support the collection of civil society endorsement/signatures, so please contact her (cc copying Judit Rius of MSF) if your organization would like to sign into this letter that we can send to Mark Dybul (and Heads of other agencies cosponsoring this initiative) the week of May 12 and share with Member States and civil society attending the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva from May 19-24.
Next Steps:
- Contact Claire (cc copying Judi) before Friday May 9 if your organization wants to sign into this letter
For all: please share the letter with relevant networks of civil society & lists so that other organizations can also sign in.
A summary of what is publically available & can already be shared:
- March concept note and Brook Baker analysis: http://infojustice.org/archives/32565
- February concept note & Thiru analysis : http://keionline.org/node/1979
- Letter from activists to Mark Dybul post-Icasa meeting: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/internationaltreatmentpreparedness/conversations/topics/24403
- Suerie Moon blog: http://blogs.plos.org/speakingofmedicine/2013/12/01/is-the-global-fund-heading-backwards-on-access-to-medicines/
- MSF initial reaction: http://www.msf.org/article/global-fund-proposed-shake-drug-pricing-framework-risks-middle-income-countries-paying-more
- IP Watch article on the initiative: http://www.ip-watch.org/2014/04/07/global-fund-and-tiered-medicines-pricing-under-debate/