UNICEF lauds Canada's move to produce cheaper AIDS drugs for poor countries

The chief of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) today lauded Canada's push to quickly enact legislation allowing makers of generic medicines to export cheaper versions of patented HIV/AIDS drugs to poor countries heavily impacted by the pandemic.

"The hardest hit countries are seeing HIV prevalence rates as high as 40 per cent among young people. This scenario spells devastation for these countries," Executive Director Carol Bellamy said. "Like Canada, other countries and players need to think much more creatively about steps they can take to energize and politicize the global response to this massive AIDS emergency."

If the law passes, Canada would become the first of the eight most industrialized countries to implement World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements that allow heavily impacted countries to import antiretrovirals at a preferential price provided they cannot produce the drugs domestically and would not use them for commercial purposes, according to UNICEF.

"The decision will expand overall availability of antiretrovirals in poor countries, and it will encourage competition; this is good for people, and this is good for economies. It's a path-breaking step in the fight against AIDS," Ms. Bellamy said.

More than half the 14,000 daily new HIV infections occur among people below the age of 25, she said.