Was it the annual Be kind to 
FEST?
Posted on 07/13/2004 9:01:19 AM PDT by TexKat
BANGKOK, Thailand -- France accused the United States of "blackmail" tactics to pressure poor countries into ceding rights to make cheap generic HIV drugs, while the AIDS Conference issued a stirring call Monday to get more medicine to millions of needy in the developing world.
"A vicious terrorist is out there. It is not Osama bin Laden, it is AIDS," Hollywood actor Richard Gere told the conference. "The biggest threat to our livelihood, our happiness is AIDS."
A U.S. official denied the French allegation as "nonsense," while conference delegates lamented World Health Organization figures that show only about 7 percent of the 6 million people in poor countries who need antiretroviral treatment are getting it.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
CNN
I forget which event Richard Gere was booed at right after 9/11 while talking about peace, but it was one of my favorite post-9/11 moments.
France
Ah, the French are at it again ...
How many of the french elderly will die this summer?
I'm thinking of changing my nick to "Gere's Gerbil." Could we get sued?
The King of the Gerbils speaks....
His oil for food program has ran dry, now jockstrap is trying to find another avenue to gain funds illegally.
My main criticism of the Bush administration is that it does not agressively counter the anti-US propaganda that comes in a steady stream from all directions, including Europe and the Democrats. I know that Bush is not very articulate, but surely someone in the administration can do a better job at combatting the lies with reasoned arguments wherever and whenever the anti-American lies occur!
Gerebil
Was it the annual Be kind to
FEST?
Pharmaceutical firms agree to Clinton AIDS deal
24/10/2003
Themes: Human Rights and sustainable trade
Source: Financial Times
Former US President Bill Clinton has brokered an agreement with four pharmaceutical companies - Ranbaxy Laboratories, Cipla, Matrix Laboratories, and Aspen Pharmacare Holdings - to make low-cost antiretroviral drugs available to treat Aids in the developing world. The deal could cut the cost of a widely used cocktail of three Aids drugs by about a third, from 55 US cents (€0.47) to 38 cents (€0.39) a day. The announcement was welcomed by campaigners and practitioners in the Aids field. “For Aids treatment rates in poor countries to go up, prices have to come down,” said Bono, the rock star and campaigner with the group Data (Debt, Aids, Trade Africa). “Today's announcement marks a crucial breakthrough.”
The former US president Bill Clinton yesterday took a swipe at the Bush administration's close relationship with American pharmaceutical giants by announcing a deal to enable poor countries to buy cheap generic drugs and testing equipment for Aids, rather than the US companies' more expensive wares...
By Guardian Newspapers, 4/6/2004
The former US president Bill Clinton yesterday took a swipe at the Bush administration's close relationship with American pharmaceutical giants by announcing a deal to enable poor countries to buy cheap generic drugs and testing equipment for Aids, rather than the US companies' more expensive wares.
The deal with five generic drug companies will bring the cost of Aids drugs down to $140 (£76) per person per year and cut the cost of testing equipment by 80%.
Yesterday the UN's Global Fund - which grants money to poor countries to buy drugs - the World Bank and Unicef signed an agreement with the Clinton Foundation to provide the cash and assistance.
The move runs counter to the thrust of the Bush administration's $15bn anti-Aids plan. It has become increasingly clear in recent months that the administration wants to pay only for drugs made by the big US-based pharmaceutical companies. It has been accused of trying to undermine confidence in the generic copies.
President Bush's anti-Aids supremo, the former Eli Lilly chief executive Randall Tobias, recently told Congress that there were doubts over the quality of cheap generic Aids drugs made in India and China, even though they have been approved by the World Health Organisation. The US Department of Health and Human Sciences organised a meeting last week in Botswana to re-examine the WHO's approval process.
Critics such as Medécins sans Frontières have warned that fewer lives will be saved if branded drugs are bought, because they are several times more expensive than the generics. Generics companies have also made a three-in-one combination pill, to be taken twice a day.
Yesterday the Clinton Foundation invited developing countries to buy drugs from five generic companies - four in India and one in South Africa - at prices it has negotiated, which are as low as $140 per person per year.
That is one third to a half the price available anywhere to date. The foundation has also negotiated a deal on HIV/Aids testing equipment, which is up to 80% cheaper than anything now on the market.
Anti-Aids activists were delighted. "The historic Clinton Foundation drug pricing and distribution deal is a powerful slap to President Bush's arrogant attempts to limit the use of generic Aids medicines to suit the whims of his pharmaceutical backers," said Paul Davis from the US-based Health GAP.
The low prices are already available in the 16 countries in the Caribbean and Africa where the Clinton Foundation is opening clinics and training medical staff to fight the pandemic. Other countries that have been granted UN or World Bank funds will now be able to approach the foundation for the same deal.
"I am grateful for this collective effort, which will soon help many hundreds of thousands of people, and eventually millions of people, live longer, healthier lives," said Mr Clinton in a statement.
Stephen Lewis, the UN secretary general's special envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa said: "This initiative, along with WHO's "3 by 5" (putting 3 million people into treatment by the end of 2005) could well spell the turnaround of the HIV/aids pandemic in Africa."
I think the correct adage came from Confucious: Never get into a pissing contest with Niagra Falls.
Richard Gere told the conference. "The biggest threat to our livelihood, our happiness is AIDS."
what a tool!
Most every america that has/had AIDS got the virus by choice! The biggest threat to people like richard gere and the hollywood elites livelihood and happiness is abstinance or a healthy loving relationship based on commitment and marriage.
All the AIDS research and drug development in the world would not have stopped 9-11 richard gere!
I'm sorry, France, did you say something?
""The biggest threat to our livelihood, our happiness is AIDS"
That says a lot about the group he was talking to. There are billions of people who go to sleep every night without the slightest worry about AIDS, because they are not engaging in the behavior that spreads AIDS, and they can trust their spouse not to engage in it, either.
Character is the cure for AIDS.
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