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Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, in May I stood on this floor and castigated the pharmaceutical industry for going behind the scenes and killing an amendment that Senator FEINGOLD and I had introduced, and which was part of the African trade bill. They killed this amendment in conference.
This amendment essentially would have allowed countries in the midst of a national HIV/AIDS emergency to use the cheapest possible drugs to fight that national health emergency by allowing the country to distribute the drugs through ``parallel importing'' and ``compulsory licensing.''
Fortunately, the President put forward an Executive order to carry out the intent of our amendment.
Since that time, some substantial things have happened.
Because I was so critical of the industry I feel it is only fitting that I always come to the floor and acknowledge those that have responded to the crisis.
When Senator FEINGOLD and I began this fight last fall, 6 months after the World Health Organization declared HIV/AIDS the most deadly infectious disease in the world, very few people were aware at the time of the scope of the devastation as a result of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.
Today, things have changed. Virtually not a day goes by without the media running a story about the HIV/AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan Africa. I will not recapitulate today all of the horrifying numbers behind this AIDS crisis. It suffices to say that more than 22 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, including over 30 percent of the adult population in many of the countries in the region. AIDS kills more than 2 million people a year in sub-Saharan Africa.
The media, the public, and governments from around the world are now increasingly aware of the catastrophe that is unfolding on this continent. Of course, the pharmaceutical community is also aware.
Today, I will discuss some of the positive steps the pharmaceutical industry is now taking to address this issue. I am very pleased and very grateful to see that the industry now recognizes its moral obligation and appears to be stepping up to the plate and taking the initiative to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa and other flashpoints throughout the developing world.
On July 7, Boehringer Ingelheim announced that Nevirapine will be offered free of charge for a period of 5 years for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in developing countries. They actually said that any country that asks for the drug will obtain it for free. That is a huge step forward. Reducing mother-to-child transmission can literally save millions of lives and reduce the rate of increase of HIV/AIDS in the developing world. In South Africa alone, according to a study published in the Lancet on June 17, as many as 110,000 cases of HIV in infants could be prevented over the next 5 years if all pregnant women in South Africa take a short course of antiretroviral medication such as Nevirapine during labor.
Today, I believe there are literally millions of orphans in Africa, orphans whose mothers, fathers, and families have died of AIDS, orphans who are living without food, without water. It is a devastating situation. The initiative by Boehringer Ingelheim is part of the collaborative effort between the United Nations, the World Bank, and five pharmaceutical companies. I salute them today. Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Glaxo-Wellcome, Merck, and Hoffman-La Roche are now trying, together, to expand access to HIV/AIDS treatment in the developing world. They deserve to be saluted by this body.
If efforts by the international community to address the HIV/AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions of the developing world are to be successful, they must be part of a coordinated effort, and that effort has to include education, prevention, and adequate health care infrastructure. They must also include access to affordable medication. This is where participation by the pharmaceutical industry is so essential.
I am pleased to see that at long last pharmaceutical companies have recognized they have a profound social responsibility and moral obligation to meet the HIV/AIDS crisis, and that the lifesaving drugs they can provide are essential. We all know that AIDS drugs are extraordinarily costly. Therefore, access to low cost or generic drugs becomes critical.
It is important, however, to sound a note of caution and place the initiatives of these pharmaceutical companies in perspective. According to Doctors' Without Borders, for example, past experience with the proposed Pfizer fluconazole donation shows that these programs sometimes come with conditions for national health ministries that make them unsustainable over the long term. Many of these conditions are worthy. For example, it is worthy that the
drug companies actually try to prevent the distribution of these drugs on the black market, and I understand the requirement that these drugs only be dispensed by a physician.
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Because of these experiences, I believe it is critical that the United Nations and the national governments concerned work with the pharmaceutical companies to make sure that any future efforts, including Boehringer Ingelheim's offer on Nevirapine, do not include hidden conditions which may serve to undermine these important initiatives.
Nevirapine, given in tablet form, as I understand it, does not have a lot of side effects and can be given in a way that encourages pregnant women throughout the continent to use it, and thereby in 90 percent of the cases prevent the transmission of the HIV virus to the unborn child.
In addition, I believe alongside initiatives by the pharmaceutical industry, access to low cost and/or generic drugs embodied in the President's May 11 Executive Order is still very important. The few developing countries that have significant access to medicines for people with HIV/AIDS gained access by aggressively pursuing generic strategies. In Brazil, 80,000 people have been treated with generic drugs that have brought the cost of triple drug therapy down to approximately $1,000 a year. While in Uganda, where the Government was working with brand name drugs through a U.N. AIDS initiative, fewer than 1,000 people have been treated, due to cost constraints.
Bringing the HIV/AIDS pandemic under control in sub-Saharan Africa and preventing HIV/AIDS from becoming a pandemic in other regions of the developing world is one of the great moral tests of our time. If governments, nonprofits, and the pharmaceutical industry work together, I believe we can control what will otherwise be the greatest preventable humanitarian catastrophe in history.
Government and nonprofits are now beginning to take this crisis seriously. So are the pharmaceutical companies that produce drugs to treat HIV/AIDS. The offer by Boehringer Ingelheim to provide free Nevirapine to developing countries for 5 years to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and the creation of a coalition of five major manufacturers of HIV/AIDS drugs to work with the United Nations to deliver drugs to victims of this crisis, are major steps in the effort to control the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
I just want to say I am very grateful. I believe this Senate should also salute this action. I would like to encourage other pharmaceutical companies to follow the example these five companies are setting.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. FRIST). The Senator from New Mexico is recognized.
Mr. BINGAMAN. I thank the Chair.
(The remarks of Mr. BINGAMAN pertaining to the introduction of S. 2905 are located in today's RECORD under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
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