Around the world millions of people who are suffering from HIV/AIDS are being denied access to fairly priced medications that could significantly improve their quality of life. Gilead Sciences, Inc. is a global pharmaceutical company that manufactures two essential anti-HIV drugs that are needed in the global fight against this devastating pandemic. Gilead's Viread (tenofovir) and Truvada (emtricitabine and tenofovir) are two second-generation antiretrovirals that have been proven to be effective in treating the disease. Sadly, people living with AIDS in the Global South are continuing to die needlessly because medications such as these are neither available nor affordable in their countries. Meanwhile, Gilead seeks public acclaim for its philanthropic program that supposedly makes their drugs available when in fact too many people are being left to die without treatment.
We, members and supporters of the Student Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC), demand that Gilead Sciences, Inc. and its subsidiaries:
1. Register Viread and Truvada with the national drug regulatory agencies of all 97 "access" countries where Gilead claims to be offering lower cost drugs. Registering these drugs is the first step in making them accessible and affordable to those who need them most.
2. Expand the Access program to include affordable prices for all countries classified by the World Bank as "lower income" or "lower-middle income"--countries where millions live on less than $2/day.
3. Do not patent these drugs in low- and middle-income countries and, where patents already exist, offer a voluntary world-wide open license to governments and companies in the Global South that would allow them to produce and provide generic versions of Viread and Truvada. This would reduce prices for the medications through fair competition and enable more suppliers to actually deliver the drugs to patients.
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