The President can play a critical role through specific steps to increase access to these life-prolonging HIV-treatments and to the broad range of prophylactic drugs needed to prevent disease and reduce suffering. First, the U.S. must adopt a trade policy that supports the implementation of emergency drug manufacturing and pricing measures already allowed under international treaties. These include importing of medicines from one country to obtain the lowest prices, the licensed manufacture of generic equivalents, and differential pricing based upon relative ability to pay. The U.S. should encourage its G-8 partners to support similar trade agreements.
While the U.S. is the leading international donor on global AIDS efforts, we provide a far smaller percentage of our national budget to these efforts than many other countries and far less than what is needed for these efforts. In FY 2001, approximately $330 million will be distributed through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and lesser amounts through the Departments of Health and Human Services, Defense, Labor and Agriculture.
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HIV infectionThe total amount of approximately $450 million in FY 2001 reflects a tripling of efforts over the past three years, but funding has yet to reach the scale needed to effectively address this global pandemic. UNAIDS and the USAID estimate that at least $3 billion would be needed annually just to mount basic prevention programs throughout Africa, where the disease has hit hardest. Providing care for those already infected, including the millions of children orphaned by AIDS, will take at least that amount again. The AIDS Foundation's recommendations include enactment of legislation that provides tax credits and other incentives to speed the development of HIV vaccines and microbicides, as well as enhanced funding for the research and development of new and improved HIV treatments at the National Institutes of Health. The...