FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

Kenyon  Farrow, U.S. and Global Health Policy Director
202.550.7640; kenyon.farrow@treatmentactiongroup.org

Treatment Action Group (TAG) Applauds $12 Billion Replenishment of Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and Calls for Greater Flexibility to Support Middle-Income Countries Coping with Large HIV or TB Epidemics

New York, New York – December 3, 2013. Treatment Action Group applauds the donors who have helped make it possible to save more lives by raising a record-breaking $12 billion for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria over the next three years. TAG also commends the Obama administration for its generous match of one dollar for every two dollars contributed by other donors, which helped to drive up funding commitments in the current replenishment round.

TAG urges the Global Fund to address challenges for middle-income countries in future years. The Global Fund has adopted a new funding model that could make middle-income nations pay higher prices for lifesaving HIV and tuberculosis drugs. The Global Fund classifies countries as “middle-income” using World Bank definitions, which are based on “gross national incomes per capita.” But “middle-income” can be a misleading label that obscures wide variations in HIV and TB prevalence rates among many socially and economically divergent nations, leaving some countries facing unaffordable drug price increases.

Many middle-income nations are our neighbors in the Caribbean and Central and South America, among others, that have both high rates of poverty and HIV prevalence. Changes in the funding model will mean that these countries may not have the resources to pay for these drugs, and may have to pass on the cost to people with HIV or TB. Even when their economies are growing, these countries are often coping with drastic income disparities that may put treatment out of reach for thousands, if not millions, of people.

Treatment Action Group will continue to work with governments and our partners in civil society to address these concerns.

# # #