Several dozen demonstrators demanding swift access to anti-retroviral drugs for HIV-infected Africans staged a noisy protest at Africa’s biggest Aids conference in Nairobi on Wednesday.
Clutching paper sheets with the words, ”Guilty,” ”You Talk, We Die” and ”Keep Your Promises”, they demonstrated at the stands of pharmaceutical majors GlaxoSmithKline and Bristol-Myers Squibb and the American aid agency USAid.
The stands were left plastered with protest stickers, but the confrontation ended peacefully.
Nearly 30-million Africans have HIV or Aids. Several million of them need anti-retroviral drugs because their immune systems have become compromised, but only 50 000 can afford these drugs.
The pharmaceutical companies have slashed the price of these medications in respond to political pressure, and the tendency is towards further cuts, thanks to an incoming flow of ”generics” — drugs that are copies of patented molecules.
One of the focuses of the 13th International Conference on Aids and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa is to set down ways of distributing these drugs to those most in need.
Representatives of GlaxoSmithKline and Bristol-Meyers Squibb said their companies were investing heavily in HIV drugs research and helping the distribution effort.
The United States is the biggest single contributor to world Aids research and to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. — Sapa-AFP