Monday, Jul 15, 2002
Monday, Jul 15, 2002 |
| International | ||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | International
By Hasan Suroor
Mr. Gujral, who was speaking at a meeting of world leaders convened by the AIDS Trust in Barcelona, called for efforts to persuade the WTO to liberalise patent laws so that the drugs needed to combat AIDS were available more widely and cheaply, particularly in developing countries. At present the prices charged by multinational companies which had patent on such drugs were many times higher than it would be the case if these were available indigenously. He cited the case of CIPLA in India which had shown that this was possible. He called for pressure to be brought on MNCs to think of "social pricing'' of AIDS-related drugs considering that the disease was threatening millions across the developing world. The two-day meeting, whose highlight included speeches by the former U.S. President, Bill Clinton, and the South African leader, Nelson Mandela, heard leaders from Asian, Caribbean and Sub-Saharan countries on the spread of AIDS and the strategies needed to contain it. The meeting stressed the need to create awareness about AIDS and fight the social prejudices associated with it. Mr. Gujral said he suggested a regional conference of South Asian and Central Asian countries on the issue.
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | Home |
Copyright © 2002, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
