G77+China Plan To Take UN TB Declaration Forward: Increased Resources, Access To Medicines

The Group of 77 developing countries plus China delivered a statement at the recent United Nations High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis, calling for forward progress on the commitments to funding and action made in the UN political declaration on TB.

The statement delivered by the G77 and China supported these commitments to funding and action, and called for “increased resources and means of implementation by the international community towards developing countries in most need, as well as increasing affordable access to medicines, diagnostics, vaccines and other medical tools, scaling up investments in research and development and delinking its costs from the price and sales volumes of new medical tools,” according to a South Centre press release.

“Furthermore,” it says, “the statement stresses the need to ensure affordability and access to existing and new medicines, vaccines, diagnostics and other medical tools, including through the use to the fullest extent of the flexibilities provisions in the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health.”

The full statement of the G77 and China can be found here, and the full text of the UN Political Declaration on the Fight Against Tuberculosis can be found here [pdf].

The G77 made five key points in its statement, included below.

“It is important in this regard, that we, the international community provide the resources and means of implementation necessary to realize our ambitions:

a) First, it is crucial that we scale up financing from both domestic and donor sources, to provide at least the 13 billion US dollars per year needed to fight this disease; in addition, the international community needs to close the annual funding gap of 1.3 billion US dollars for tuberculosis research;

b) Second, we have to put into action the spirit of global solidarity and principles of development cooperation, especially to support countries in special situations, notably African countries, Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Islands Developing States, conflict and post-conflict countries and countries and peoples living under foreign occupation, while recognizing the specific challenges faced by Middle-Income Countries;

c) Third, we must ensure affordability and access to existing and new medicines, vaccines, diagnostics and other medical tools, including through the use to the fullest extent of the flexibilities provisions in the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health;

d) Fourth, we must, support, as a matter of urgency, research and development of medicines, vaccines, diagnostic tools and other health technologies. This must be done while ensuring that R&D efforts are needs-driven, evidence-based, and a shared responsibility. These efforts must be guided by the core principles of affordability, effectiveness, efficiency, and equity through delinking research and development costs from prices and sales volume;”

In fact, we need to scale up efforts for Tuberculosis research and innovation for new affordable, non-toxic and shorter-regimen drugs;

e) Fifth, there is a need to further support the work of the World Health Organization, which provide invaluable assistance to national health systems, including national programmes to combat TB.”

 

Image Credits: David Branigan