The need for activism was stressed at International AIDS Conference 2024, or AIDS2024, with pharmaceutical companies in particular being pinpointed for prioritizing profit over saving lives.
Activists from Colombia, for instance, rallied to highlight how pharmaceutical giants ViiV and GSK “failed to give us solutions” in producing life-saving medicines in their country. There, these for-profit companies refused to produce the medicines needed, and when the government took over the production by using patent approaches already used by Western countries like the USA to allow it to access IP rights on lifesaving solutions, the companies decided to sue the government.
“We are angry,” activists said, even while also asking these pharmaceutical giants to stop sing and start helping. In the end, for them, “greed kills.”
If anything, the rallies held in the conference continue to highlight how, in HIV advocacy, activism continues to be needed. – WITH MICHAEL DAVID dela Cruz TAN
