Home About Us Treat AIDS Now Further Reading

Below you’ll find a list of links to websites, books, reports, and films which provide information, advice and resources on various issues relevant to People & Planet’s Treat AIDS Now campaign. This is a growing resource, so do check back, and if you’ve read or watched something useful that we haven’t included here, please do let us know.

General reading

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AIDS in the Twenty-First Century: Disease and Globalization Tony Barnett and Alan Whiteside, 2nd Revised Edition, April 2006.

Updated revised addition of a work met with widespread praise from researchers and policy makers, dealing with the latest facts and developments in the field. Ideal for students and researchers are the extended bibliography, and key reading and topics for discussions and essays given per chapter (LSE review).

The No Nonsense Guide to HIV/AIDS (No Nonsense) Shereen Usdin, November 2003. This is an accessible pocket guide offering insights into the origins of HIV/AIDS, how it spreads, drug company profits, vulnerability of women, and positive action being taken by affected people and communities.

The Avert website contains a wide range of information including basic factual information about HIV/AIDS and its spread around the world, specific areas for young people and interactive quizzes. There is a recent development of an extensive photo library containing over 800 images relating to HIV & AIDS (you will need permission to use most of these).

The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West and the Fight Against AIDS Helen Epstein, 2008. “Narrative of the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic and what we need to do to win it.” Read a Times online review.

Eldis is a web service produced by the Institute for Development Studies, Sussex, which “aims to share the best in development, policy, practice and research.” Their HIV and AIDS Resource guide features reports on children and young people (including education, mother to child transmission, orphans and vulnerable children); AIDS communication; Citizenship and Rights (including human rights, stigma and discrimination, sexual rights and civil society); Gender; People living with HIV and AIDS; Prevention (including contraception, transmission, vaccines, counselling and testing, abstinence, microbicides); Sexual and Reproductive health; Treatment and Care (including Access to treatment, TRIPS and patents, ARVs, nutrition); Vulnerability (including poverty, injective drug users, older people, sex workers and the sex industry, and violence against women).

News sites

Kaiser Network. Daily news reports on Hiv/AIDS, covering global challenges, drug access issues, the latest developments in science and medicine, US domestic policy and opinion pieces.

Living with HIV and AIDS: Stories and case studies

28: Stories of AIDS in Africa Stephanie Nolen. “From an internationally acclaimed journalist comes an extraordinary book that puts a human face on the AIDS crisis in Africa: twenty-eight vivid stories, one for each of the million Africans living with the virus. For the past six years, Stephanie Nolen has traced AIDS across Africa, and 28 is the result: an unprecedented, uniquely human portrait of the continent in crisis. Through riveting, anecdotal stories, she brings to life men, women, and children involved in every aspect of the pandemic, making them familiar to us in a way they never have been before. In the process, she explores the effects of an epidemic that well exceeds the Black Plague in scope, and the reasons why we must care about what happens … These stories reveal how HIV works and spreads; how it is inextricably tied to conflict and famine and to the diverse cultures it has ravaged; how treatment works, and how people who can’t get treatment fight to stay alive with courage and dignity against huge odds. Writing with power and simplicity, Stephanie Nolen makes us listen, allows us to understand, and inspires us to care. Timely and transformative, 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa is essential reading for anyone concerned about the fate of humankind.”

28 Stories of AIDS in Africa. Read summaries and watch short films of the stories (see above for details).

‘Lesotho Voices, Born free from HIV’, UNICEF. These powerful films and photos by photographer Gideon Mendel share the personal stories of seven women in Lesotho. All are living with HIV but only some have benefited from services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus (PMTCT).

Access to treatment

Progress towards universal access

MISSING THE TARGET #5: Improving AIDS Drug Access and Advancing Health Care for All. International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC), December 2007. The ITPC includes more than 1,000 activists from over 125 countries and is a leading civil society coalition on treatment preparedness and access issues. This is their fifth report on scale up of AIDS services. It investigates “AIDS drug access in 14 countries and finds that scale up is working but high prices, patent and registration barriers, and ongoing stock-outs are core issues impeding better and faster AIDS drug delivery.” Looking ahead it finds that “at the current pace of growth in treatment delivery, several million will not have access by the end of 2010. Broken promises will mean millions of deaths. Scale up of AIDS treatment is driving unprecedented expansion of health delivery and, in the process, identifying critical challenges to health systems as well as practical solutions to address them. This report identifies many ways in which governments and global agencies must act to correct systems essential to delivery of health.”

UNAIDS. UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, is an innovative joint venture of the United Nations family, bringing together the efforts and resources of ten UN system organizations in the AIDS response to help the world prevent new HIV infections, care for people living with HIV, and mitigate the impact of the epidemic.

UNAIDS produces regular reports on the HIV epidemic support countries in creating national AIDS plans to scale up towards universal access, and “tracks, evaluates and projects the financial resource requirements at global, regional and country levels to generate reliable and timely information on the epidemic and the response. Based on these evaluations, UNAIDS produces guidelines and progress reports.”. Download its latest estimate of the ‘Financial resources required to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment care and support

Intellectual property and access to medicines

Essential Action’s Access to Medicines project is “working to overcome patent and other intellectual property barriers to affordable medicines.” Its project work focuses on facilitating developing country use of TRIPS flexibilities; addressing the challenges posed by TRIPS-plus trade agreements; addressing the TRIPS compulsory licensing for export problem; as well as particular dispute on IP and access to medicines issues that arise. If that all sounds complicated, never fear: Essential Action’s material “is widely recognized as being penetrating and understandable to people who are expert neither in trade or IP policy.” The website includes useful factsheets ona variety of issues, as well as up-to-date policy analysis and reports.

The February 2008 Global Access to Medicines Bulletin High Drug Prices, Access to Medicines and the Cost of R&D discusses the pharmaceutical industry’s most frequent justification for high drug prices in the developing world: the cost of research and development (R&D) for new treatments, and concludes that Pharma’s R&D cost estimates are often overblown, and that generic competition in the developing world will not significantly undermine industry’s ability to develop new drugs.

Evolution of Antiretroviral Drug Costs in Brazil in the Context of Free and Universal Access to AIDS Treatment, Amy S. Nunn, Elize M. Fonseca, Francisco I. Bastos, Sofia Gruskin1, Joshua A. Salomon, Public Library of Science Medicine Journal, November 2007. “Little is known about the long-term drug costs associated with treating AIDS in developing countries. Brazil’s AIDS treatment program has been cited widely as the developing world’s largest and most successful AIDS treatment program. The program guarantees free access to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for all people living with HIV/AIDS in need of treatment. Brazil produces non-patented generic antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), procures many patented ARVs with negotiated price reductions, and recently issued a compulsory license to import one patented ARV. In this study, we investigate the drivers of recent ARV cost trends in Brazil through analysis of drug-specific prices and expenditures between 2001 and 2005.”

Closing the Affordability Gap for Drugs in Low-Income Countries Robert Steinbrook, M.D, November 2007, New England Journal of Medicine. A brief overview of different mechanisms to reduce the price of medicines, including , generic competition, voluntary licensing,differential pricing and compulsory licensing.

The Pharmaceutical Industry and access to HIV/AIDS treatment

Big Pharma and AIDS: Act II Patents and the Price of Second-Line Treatment, Robert Weissman, Multinational Monitor, March/April 2007. This article provides a great introduction to, and overview of, the impact of international patent rules on access to AIDS treatment. It examines how, in the last six years, generic competition has sparked dramatic reductions in the price of AIDS drugs, enabling many more people to access treatment and making it feasible for international donors to fund large-scale treatment programs. It then examines the threats to future progress posed by the high cost of new drugs - looking at the impact of the TRIPS agreement and pharmaceutical lobbying, and considers the significance of recent developments, such as Thailand’s 2007 use of compulsory licensing provisions. (The print edition featured a picture of our April 2007 protest against Abbott Laboratories’ attempts to deter the Thai government’s from using these provisions!)

The Cost of Pushing Pills: A New Estimate of Pharmaceutical Promotion Expenditures in the United States Marc-André Gagnon, Joel Lexchin,Public Library of Science Medicine Journal, January 2008. The authors offer a revised estimate for the pharmaceutical industry’s spend on marketing. “From this new estimate, it appears that pharmaceutical companies spend almost twice as much on promotion as they do on R&D. These numbers clearly show how promotion predominates over R&D in the pharmaceutical industry, contrary to the industry’s claim … it confirms the public image of a marketing-driven industry and provides an important argument to petition in favor of transforming the workings of the industry in the direction of more research and less promotion.”

Who owns the knowledge economy? Political Organising behind TRIPS, Peter Drahos, John Braithwaite The Corner House, 2004. A fascinating analysis of how the current intellectual property system came into being - this is an extract from Information Feudalism, see below.

Three tests of US trade policy on intellectual property rights. Peter Drahos and John Braithwaite, nth position magazine, 2003, available online. This article critiques US foign policy though the example of the evolution of the TRIPS agreement - an example which “fails the three tests of a good foreign policy that Eleanor Roosevelt proposed for the US to assist in a process of peaceful development that in the long run would also spread market opportunities for the US. And it is a long way from her hope that the US would work towards a “world of autonomous, prospering democracies”.”

Information Feudalism: Who Owns the Knowledge Economy? Peter Drahos, John Braithwaite, Earthscan, 2002. “New intellectual property regimes are entrenching new inequalities. Access to information is fundamental to the exercise of human rights and marketplace competition, but patents are being used to lock up vital educational, software, genetic and other information, creating a global property order dominated by a multinational elite. How did intellectual property rules become part of the World Trade Organization’s “free trade” agreements? How have these rules changed the knowledge game for international business? What are the consequences for the ownership of biotechnology and digitial technology, and for all those who have to pay for what was once shared information? Based on extensive interviews with key players, this book tells the story of these profound transformations in information ownership. The authors argue that in the globalized information society, the rich have found new ways to rob the poor, and shows how intellectual property rights can be more democratically defined.”

Private Power, Public Law: The Globalization of Intellectual Property Rights (Cambridge Studies in International Relations): The Globalization of Intellectual … Studies in International Relations) Susan Sell, Cambridge University Press, 2008. “Susan K. Sell s book shows how power in international politics is increasingly exercised by private interests rather than governments. In 1994 the WTO adopted the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which dictated to states how they should regulate the protection of intellectual property. This book argues that TRIPS resulted from lobbying by twelve powerful CEOs of multinational corporations who wished to mould international law to protect their markets. This book examines the politics leading up to TRIPS, the first seven years of its implementation, and the political backlash against TRIPS in the face of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Focusing on global capitalism, ideas, and economic coercion, this work explains the politics behind TRIPS and the controversies created in its wake. It is a fascinating study of the influence of private interests in government decision-making, and in the shaping of the global economy.”

Pharmaceutical Industry: Corporate Crimes An overview from Corporate Watch of the pharmaceutical industry, and reports on specific companies (Most information was updated in 2002).

Wonder Drug Inspires Deep, Unwavering Love Of Pharmaceutical Companies. The Onion, March 2006. Satirical magazine, The Onion, ‘reports’ on the latest offering from the pharmaceutical industry.

Meeting poor people’s needs for access to medicines through responsible business practices, Oxfam, November 2007 “There are major shortcomings in the pharmaceutical industry’s current initiatives to ensure that poor people have access to medicines. To shore up its own flagging economic performance, the industry is increasingly looking to the potentially huge markets within emerging economies. Yet, poor people who live in these countries still desperately lack affordable and appropriate medicines. The time is ripe for a bold new approach. The industry must put access to medicines at the heart of its decision-making and practices. This is both a more sustainable long-term business strategy and would allow the industry to better play its role in achieving the universal right to health.”

Gowers Review of Intellectual Property, 6 December 2006, ISBN: 978-0-11-84083-9. The Gowers Review was commissioned by the Treasury to ‘review the UK’s intellectual property framework’. It examines the balance between creating incentives for innovation (for example, for drugs companies to invest into researching new treatments) and allowing access for consumers. As well as considering the domestic picture, the report also includes recommendations on international action, to tackle the problems faced by developing countries. This P&P news-story highlights some of the findings most relevant to our Treat AIDS now campaign.

Universities and access to medicines

Universities allied for essential medicines. “Universities Allied for Essential Medicines has a two-fold mission: 1. to determine how universities can help ensure that biomedical end products, such as drugs, are made more accessible in poor countries and 2. to increase the amount of research conducted on neglected diseases, or those diseases predominantly affecting people who are too poor to constitute a market attractive to private-sector R&D investment. In both cases, universities are well-placed to make a difference. University scientists are major contributors in the drug development pipeline. At the same time, universities have an avowed commitment to advancing the public good. As members of these universities, our fundamental goal is to hold them to this commitment. UAEM works with student and faculty groups across the US, Europe and Canada.”

Trade agreements and access to medicines

How Do Intellectual Property Law and International Trade Agreements Affect Access to Antiretroviral Therapy? Westerhaus M, Castro A (2006) PLoS Med 3(8). “In this paper, we examine the key areas of concern regarding access to ART related to US-negotiated bilateral, regional, and multilateral trade agreements. We first examine developments in IP law in the wake of WTO’s Doha Declaration, which affirmed the priority of public health over the protection of patents. We look specifically at those developments with particular salience for health-related issues and link this history with the current context of access to antiretrovirals (ARVs) worldwide. Next we map out the key claims about, and questions surrounding, the role of patent law, followed by a critical look at the impact of trade agreements on IP law and their potential threat to global health. Finally, we suggest policy and advocacy strategies to ensure and promote access to ART in the era of US-led attempts to strengthen global IP law through the vehicle of “free” trade agreements.”

Intellectual Property Provisions in European Union Trade Agreements: Implications for Developing Countries, Santa-Cruz S., Maximiliano, 2007, ICTSD IPRs and Sustainable Development Issue Paper No. 20, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, Geneva, Switzerland. This paper “addresses the scope, content and potential impact of proposed intellectual property (IP) provisions in Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union (EU). The EPA negotiations offer an important opportunity for consolidating and expanding market access in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and can lock-in or improve domestic market reforms. However, one aspect of the EPAs that has generated deep concern among various stakeholders is the potential impact of TRIPS-plus provisions on the use of flexibilities and exceptions that have been designed to safeguard certain public interests and development objectives. In this regard, EPAs raise many negotiating and implementation challenges regarding policy coherence and the maintenance of flexibilities in such agreements, as well as in improving predictability in the IP field.”

Fighting FTAs “is a collaborative publication released by [bilaterals.org, BIOTHAI and GRAIN in February 2008. ‘Fighting FTAs’ provides a big picture of what today’s frenzy over free trade agreements (FTAs) means, and an insight into some of the struggles being waged by social movements fighting back.”

The WTO and access to medicines

Financing for AIDS and health systems

Health Financing Revisited: A practitioners Guide, World Bank 2006

Filling the gap: A currency transaction tax

A Sterling Solution, Implementing a stamp duty on sterling to finance international development, Stamp Out Poverty, September 2006

Taking the Next Step, Implementing a Currency Transaction Development Levy, Stamp Out Poverty, February 2007.

Meeting the Millennium Promise, Executive summary, All Party Parliamentary Group for Debt, Aid and Trade.

Meeting the Millennium Promise, Full Report, All Party Parliamentary Group for Debt, Aid and Trade, November 2007.

Stamp Out Poverty Homepage. Stamp Out Poverty’s answers to Frequently Asked Questions

Campaigning and policy organisations

Knowledge Ecology International
Searches for better outcomes, including new solutions, for the management of knowledge resources. KEI undertakes and publishes research and new ideas, engages in global public interest advocacy, provides technical advice to governments, NGOs and firms, enhances transparency of policy making, monitors actions of key actors, and provides forums for the discussion and debate of KE topics.

Stop AIDS Campaign A coalition of more than 80 of the UK’s leading development and HIV/AIDS organisations including People & Planet and Avert. It works to raise awareness in the UK about the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and to campaign for urgently scaled up international action.

Terence Higgins Trust One of the first and now the leading HIV and AIDS charity in the UK, and the largest in Europe.

Treatment Action Campaign
Founded in South Africa and campaigns for HIV treatment and reduction of new HIV infections. Successes include the implementation of mother-to-child transmission prevention and antiretroviral treatment programmes. TAC also provides science based understanding through a training programme called the treatment literacy campaign.

World AIDS Campaign

Governmental Organisations

DFID

DFID homepage with millenium development goals and HIV/AIDs factsheet.

World Health Organisation

The WTO on HIV infections, including publications, statistics and the concept and framework for universal access by 2010.

In this section:

Further Reading

Access to Treatment

Financing

Organisations