AIDS Action ‘Strongly Encourages’ Bush Not to Reverse Executive Order on Parallel Importation of AIDS Drugs in Africa
AIDS Action yesterday sent a letter to President Bush "strongly encourag[ing]" him not to reverse the Clinton administration's executive order "permitting parallel import[ation] of AIDS drugs in sub-Saharan Africa," which helps African nations "devastated by the AIDS crisis" gain access to HIV drugs (AIDS Action release, 1/25). Clinton's order, issued in May 2000, holds African countries to the "less stringent standard of a World Trade Organization agreement on intellectual property protection," instead of U.S. trade laws concerning patents (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 5/11/00). AIDS Action Executive Director Claudia French said, "In his inaugural address, President Bush said that Americans are a compassionate people whose conscience will not tolerate deep and persistent poverty. In these first days of his new administration, President Bush has an extraordinary opportunity to address the high price of the AIDS pandemic on the world's poorest nations by keeping this executive order in place." She added, "The humanitarian tragedy of AIDS cannot be separated from its extraordinary cost. AIDS is the first wave in a flood of economic devastation that threatens to drown the developing world. ... We hope that President Bush will use every tool avail
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