OPENING SPEECHES

Andrea and Adrian.

OPENING SPEECH

Azerbaijan

The World Health Organization

IES Avda de los Toreros

Generic Drugs

Horonable Chair, esteemed delegates, we thank all of you for your presence. As we know, generic drugs are medicines that one can buy cheaper than a brand name drug and with the same chemical formula. Although everyone should have access to these drugs, especially countries which cannot afford to buy brand name drugs, these more expensive drugs need to be sold in order to invest in the research and development of new medicines.

In Azerbaijan generic drugs are very limited and large percentage of the population suffers from non-communicable diseases such cancer and cardiovascular diseases that cannot be treated properly due to the lack of generic drugs. The government of Azerbaijan decided to create a law which states that every citizen has the right to medical care, and we are trying to convince pharmaceutical companies to supply our country with the generic drugs we need.

We understand there are many other countries that need generic drugs, and we would like to give some recommendations that could solve the debate. We think that all countries should increase the prices of tobacco and alcohol, so that a large amount of the population would stop buying them and the percentage of people who suffer from illnesses related to these products would decrease. In the scenario that they keep buying them, a part of the benefits obtained from tobacco and alcohol would be  designated for pharmaceutical companies and the research and development of new medicines. Then, 10 years after starting this programme we can assess the changes and we could be a step closer to a solution to the generic drugs problem that is affecting the world. We thank you all for your attention.

OPENING SPEECH                                               Alvaro and Christian

The Republic of El Salvador

Generic Drugs

    

       Honorable chair and esteemed delegates, El Salvador is very grateful to be in this conference about generic drugs.

      We, from El Salvador, believe generic drugs are important for the world because they are a cheaper way of treating illnesses.

      We are a lower middle income country with only 6.8% of our GDP invested in health expenditure. In addition 41.7% of Salvadorians have limited access to health services. In our country, 67% of all deaths are caused by non-communicable diseases. This creates a serious problem because while non-communicable drugs are being researched not as many generics of them are produced.

          We think that non-communicable diseases should be considered at the same level of importance as communicable ones. So we suggest that the big pharmaceutical companies should produce more affordable treatments for non-communicable diseases.

     Another problem we want to address is the lack of funds for new research & development. We recommend that all countries invest more money in big pharmaceutical companies for the research of new medicines by increasing taxes on products that produce the non-communicable illnesses such as tobacco and alcohol.

     El Salvador will follow all the agreements reached in this conference and we hope our suggestions will be considered as a path to the improvement of our world. Thank you esteemed delegates and honorable chair for your time.

Wisal and Elisa

Lebannon

Honorable Chair. Esteemed Delegates.

We thank you all for your presence. We are going to talk about Lebanon’s position on the generic drugs.

From Lebanon’s point of view, the majority of big pharmaceutical companies are in developed countries; however, we think that there should be more pharmaceutical companies in our country, because Lebanese people suspect the quality of Generic Drugs

Lebanon has spent $900 million each year for medicines, and this quantity of money is really large for our country, especially in proportion to our GDP. According to the World Health Organisation, only 2% of the medicines in Lebanon are generic drugs, which is a very low percentage for such a poor country.

Lebanon has also started a country cooperation strategy with the World Health Organisation, and we are working to establish tobacco control, non-communicable disease control, HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis control, as well as to implement international health regulations.

Lebanon would like to build pharmaceutical in our country, not only for the Lebanese people to trust more in generic drugs, but also to have an easier access to medicines. Lebanon does not have the money to build pharmaceutical companies, but we are thinking about increasing taxes on unhealthy products, such as tobacco and alcohol. In this way, we could use this money to build our own pharmaceutical laboratories

Thank you for your attention

Maria and Lorena

Togolese Republic

World Health Organization

Generic Drugs

IES Avenida de los Toreros

Generic drugs are very necessary in a world where 1400 million people live under extreme poverty. They are “pharmaceutical products manufactured without a license from the innovator company and marketed after the expiry date of the patent or other exclusive right” (WHO) and because of this they are much more affordable than their original brand name counter parts. However, access to medicines in the world is difficult. Big pharmaceutical companies that produce medicines put a lot of money into research and development, and, as their main source of income is the sale of medicines, they allege that generic drugs are prejudicial to them. Besides, it takes a long time for generic drugs to become available due to the 20 year patent protection of brand name drugs. In Togo (one of the ten poorest countries in the world) malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis are very widespread diseases among our population. According to the WHO “the total expenditure on health per capita in Togo is $80”, revealing how people find it very difficult to access generic drugs. Togo is completely in favour of the sale and distribution of generic drugs in developing countries, and we think that the generic drugs debate needs to be addressed before it is too late.

            As we have already mentioned, access to generic drugs is becoming a problem not only in Togo, but in other developing countries, due to the weak economy of these countries, the increasing prices of generic drugs and the extended wait time for the patent of a brand drug to expire. Much of our population is dying because of our incapacity to pay for generic drugs. According to our government, our country “is the third-worst affected country in Africa about HIV/AIDS”. The antiretroviral ARV therapy coverage among people with HIV infection in Togo is only 24% while the regional average is 37%. We are one of the countries with the lowest number of pharmacies in the world, with 1 pharmacy per 200,000 inhabitants (WHO, 2011).

To give you an example of actions we have taken to combat this issue, we want to mention Augustin Dokla, a Togolese man who has been fighting HIV/AIDS since 1995. His main aims are for generic drugs to be sold at more affordable prices. In 2005, he tried to organize a sit-in in front of the Indian embassy in Lome, as an objection to the intention of this country´s parliament of increasing the price of HIV/AIDS drugs. “The attitude of the Indian government means certain death for all those who found hope when generics came into the market”, said Dokla. We think that the fight of people like Dokla is really important, and our government tries to help as much as possible, on both the national and international level.

            In June 1997, Togo attended the first General Assembly of ACAME (The Constituent Assembly of three African associations of central Medical Stores for essential generic drugs) in which 11 African countries asked for essential generic drug supply. By this action, we demonstrated the importance of generic drugs for our countries, and that our authorities and government are really worried about this issue. In 2006, we supported the Dakar Declaration by ACAME asking for the inclusion as essential drugs for three priority diseases: HIV, tuberculosis and malaria (WHO). Togo is really worried because we think that the generic drug issue is one of international importance because a large number of countries are affected by it. Togo is a member of the WHO, the ACAME, and other international organizations which are working towards a solution. We are aware that if this issue is solved, the world will be a much better place in which to live and therefore we have several resolutions we would like to propose.

            Togo believes that a tiered pricing system in which developed countries contribute more to the payment of generic drugs should be applied, due to the high income of these countries. In this manner, governments could invest this money in big pharmaceutical companies so that they can continue their research, and developing countries will be able to afford the prices of generic drugs. In exchange for this effort, we promise to politically support developed countries whenever they need. We would like this solution to be implemented by the end of the year 2015, and hope you will join us in endorsing an agreement between developed and developing countries with the conditions we have just mentioned.  We want to finish by thanking everybody, and by saying that we really need help from the international community, because, in the end, a country is nothing without others to help.

David and Manuela