[REPORT] Give Everyone the Right to Affordable Medicines

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By Shiwei Ye

The high cost of medicines essential for the prevention, treatment and cure of many diseases makes them inaccessible to millions of patients who need them. The World Health Organization estimates this to include a third of the world’s population. In parts of Asia, the percentage may be even higher.

One of the key factors making medicines unaffordable is the current intellectual property right (IPR) regime and its prominent place in many free trade agreements. There is a dire need to reform the current international trade framework in order to provide correct and adequate incentives that can lead to need-based medical innovations and that can ensure that public health is prioritized over commercial interests.

 

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[REPORT] Does Cambodia Want Harm Reduction Groups to Cause Harm?

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The Cambodian government is attempting to coerce local NGOs to test an unproven medication on drug users, according to materials obtained by Asia Catalyst. Authorities have threatened to shut down NGOs that refuse to administer the drug, and arrest drug users who refuse to take the test.

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[NEWS] NGOs Vital to HIV/AIDS Effort: Phnom Penh Post

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“International experience has shown that nongovernmental organisations are critical to the fight against HIV/AIDS. But in practice, and despite the public promises of many world leaders, AIDS NGOs often face obstacles on the ground. In Cambodia, a proposed new law risks making it harder for these groups to do their work. NGOs need regulation, but not regulations so burdensome as to entangle them in bureaucracy and drive them underground – as is threatening to happen in other parts of Asia.”

Read the full text of our World AIDS Day op-ed in the Phnom Penh Post.

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[RESOURCE] How Donors Think

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by Daniel Wolfe

I worked for an AIDS NGO before I became a donor, and there are many things about donors I wish I had known when I worked for an NGO. Perhaps the most important thing is understanding how donors think about what they do.

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[NEWS] Thai Police Framing Drug Users

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Kudos to our colleagues at Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group (TTAG) for new research on police mistreatment of drug users. According to today’s report in the Nation, drug users arrested in Thailand report being forced to pay bribes to avoid arrest, and report being framed with drug plants. According to the report, which is based on interviews with 252 Thai drug users by TTAG and the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, police may be struggling to meet quotas for drug arrests imposed by the government as part of its “war on drugs”.

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