(CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana) The Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP) has signed an agreement with six pharmaceutical companies, which will allow the Caribbean Region to access cheaper anti retroviral drugs for the care and treatment of persons living with HIV/AIDS.
The signing of the agreement took place on Wednesday, 10 July 2002, in Barcelona Spain, concluding several months of regional negotiations coordinated by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNAIDS.
Dr. Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, and the CARICOM Leader who has prime responsibility for Health and HIV/AIDS under the CARICOM quasi cabinet arrangement, signed the agreement on behalf of PANCAP. Dr. Douglas is also the Chairman of PANCAP in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Prime Minister Douglas noted that the agreement marks the beginning of a process of collaboration with the pharmaceutical companies in accelerating access to care and treatment and thereby improving the quality of life for people living with the deadly disease.
“We are asking you to share our view that this Agreement that we sign today be seen as a catalyst to move from dialogue to implementation,” said Prime Minister Douglas, disclosing that CARICOM has agreed to the establishment of a Task Force to implement the strategy framework for accelerated access to care which was developed by a Regional Technical Team in consultation with the technical experts in the pharmaceutical companies.
He said Caribbean nations will continue to press representatives of the pharmaceutical companies for a better response being aware that as commercial entities, “our interests may not always coincide with yours”.
The pharmaceutical companies involve in the Agreement are Bristol Myers Squibb, Hoffman LaRoche Limited, Glaxo Smith Kline, Boehinger Ingelheim, Merk and Company Inc., and Abbott.
Dr. Douglas was among regional and international health officials participating in the Fourteenth Conference on HIV/AIDS in Barcelona, Spain.
The Caribbean also featured in one of the plenary sessions sponsored by the World Bank – “From Denial to Action: The Caribbean Response”, which included presentations from Dr. Peter Figeuroa, Director, HIV/AIDS Porgramme in Jamaica; Professor Karl Theodore, Head of the Health Economics Unit at the St. Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Trinidad; Dr. Assim Martin, Minister of Health, St. Kitts and Nevis; and Dr. Edward Greene, Assistant Secretary-General, CARICOM.
