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Canada is yet to act on legislation passed two years ago to enable the supply of affordable anti-AIDS drugs to Africa, the international medical NGO, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said on Thursday.
The law, which drew worldwide praise at the time, could be used to put pressure on Canadian pharmaceutical companies to offer patented drug formulations to generic producers if poor countries requested them.
However, Rachel Kiddell-Monroe, director of MSF's Access to Essential Medicines campaign in Canada, told the local Toronto Star newspaper that "not a single drug has gone out of Canada under this legislation."
Kiddell-Monroe confirmed that she would be using the upcoming International AIDS Conference in Toronto to call for streamlining of the legislation, and to urge the international community to reach new deals on speeding up the delivery of drugs for AIDS, malaria and other diseases to Africa and the rest of the developing world.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions