Treatment Advocacy and Partnership Building

The focus was on the importance of NGO advocacy in improving access to treatment. This is apparent in the case of both Thailand and Malaysia. In the instance of Thailand, campaigning by the Thai NGO Coalition on AIDS (TNAC) and the Thai Network for People Living with HIV/AIDS (TNP+) played a crucial role in pushing for the compulsory licensing of generic drugs. They were able to cut down the time taken to licence the generic drug types from three months to one month. In the instance of Malaysia, the Malaysian AIDS Council was able to successfully use a media campaign and the threat of generic competition and parallel imports to bring down the price of drugs in its country. Problems faced by NGO advocates. Many PLWHAs lack confidence (feel they do not know enough) to face big pharmacy companies; they believe their lack of medical knowledge places them at a disadvantage when negotiating/lobbying. Many of them lack knowledge regarding TRIPS. The third problem was cited as a major barrier to advocacy in both Thailand and Malaysia. In fact, Malaysia was unable to import generic drugs from India (CIPLA) primarily because the process of manufacturing used by the latter was still under patent. As such, such generic drugs could not be imported until the patent on the process method expires. Drug prices still seen as a major barrier to access. Thais have argued that the right to access should be a universal human right. However, legal and trade issues resulting from TRIPS agreement made it difficult for these countries to use alternative options such as generic drugs and parallel imports.

Recommendations From the Access to Treatment and Care Group: There are four levels of endeavour which can enhance the process of access to the treatment and care:

At the personal level:

• Counselling, to overcome ignorance and achieve behavioural modification
• Peer education

At the community level:

• Set up PLWHA supporting groups to empower the patients
• To evaluate the fidelity of alternative therapy, especially in the 'resource-poor' countries in the Asia Pacific region

At the institutional level:

• To establish exchange programs with foreign agencies to ensure the quality of medical care
• To overcome WTO and TRIPS through policy-making and negotiation to bring in drugs to the "resource-poor" countries in the Asia Pacific region

At the regional level:

• To accelerate the dual-pricing policies of the drugs
• To enhance the GIPA (Greater involvement of PLWHAs) in the decision-making committees of governments
• To protect the rights of access to treatment and care of HIV positive immigrants