The state of relations between drug companies, governments, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) was at the center of a Friday EPIIC panel entitled Pandemics and Inequities: AIDS, Infectious Diseases and Economics in the Developing World.
According to moderator Lauren Katz, the panel was aimed at addressing the "interface" between pharmaceutical companies that produce treatments and vaccines, and governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that work to prevent and treat pandemics in developing countries.
Harvard Medical School's Paul Farmer, who topped the list of four panelists, received the Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award for his work in infectious and parasitic disease prevention and treatment. Calling Farmer's work a "live account of what can be done in seemingly overwhelming odds," colloquium member junior Gina Jibrin, who presented Farmer with the award, lauded his work in raising awareness on global public health emergencies.
Farmer pointed to the estimated 40 million cases of HIV worldwide - more than 95 percent of which occur in developing countries - and said that prevention programs alone are not sufficient in fighting the pandemic because they ignore the millions already living with HIV. "Prevention and treatment are part of a continuum," he said.
To set the stage for discussion, panel moderator and EPIIC colloquium member Caroline Kelly said, "it is important to consider disparities in the health status of people throughout the world, many of whom are living without access to health care."
Panelists included Norman Daniels, Tufts' Goldthwaite Professor in the department of Philosophy and professor of Medical Ethics in the department of community medicine. Daniels posed questions to the other panelists in order to encourage discussion. He asked them to discuss the likelihood of solving medical problems without any medical resources. "What country in sub-Saharan Africa does not face some kind of problem?" he asked.
Participant John McGoldrick, Executive Vice President for Law and Strategic Planning and General Counsel of pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb, said his pharmaceutical company, which aims to "extend and enhance human life," works to provide the needed medical resources.
He said the company would not let patents get in the way of providing treatment to poverty-stricken sufferers. McGoldrick recently assumed responsibility of the company's HIV/AIDS initiatives in Africa. He called the HIV/AIDS pandemic "the worst, or among the worst things to befall humanity that we have any record of."
Sherman Katz, the William M. Scholl Chair in International Business at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, added his perspective to the forum. Katz addressed the difficulty of setting up an international trade infrastructure that will support intellectual property rights and promote medical research and advancement.
This infrastructure must also allow less developed nations to confront health problems, Katz said. He is the author of TRIPS and Pharmaceuticals, and was involved in the "Declaration on the TRIPS agreement and Public Health" made in November at the World Trade Organization Ministerial Meeting.
Farmer, an "internationally respected health expert," as Jibrin called him, is co-director of the Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change at Harvard Medical School where he heads the International Working Group on Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB).
Farmer graduated from Harvard University in 1990 with both an MD and a Ph.D. and is now professor of medical anthropology at Harvard Medical School. He is medical director of Clinique Bon Sauveur in Haiti and of an MDR-TB treatment program in urban Peru. He has authored multiple books, most recently The Modern Plagues, and is co-founder and executive director of Partners in Health, which sponsors clinics and services in Haiti, Mexico, Russia, Peru, and Roxbury, MA.
