Millions of people dependent on life-saving generic drugs to treat HIV/AIDS will die if India stops producing cheap drugs for the disease due to its trade deal with the European Union, the head of UNAIDS warned on Tuesday.
The EU and India are currently negotiating a free-trade agreement, which campaigners say will restrict India’s ability to produce anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs, preventing the world’s poor from accessing cheap drugs for their treatment.
“India should resist removing any flexibility because any trade agreement which could lead to India not being able to produce will be terrible for the rest of the world,” said Michel Sidibe, executive director for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
