India urges intl community to step up actions against HIV/AIDS

Addressing a high level meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on HIV and AIDS here yesterday, Indian Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad called for a proactive and collective action from the international community to dismantle trade and intellectual property right barriers and improve the availability of affordable and quality drugs for the needy and impoverished.

"Pharmaceutical companies in my country have been providing high quality and affordable drugs for use not only in India but also supplying to around 200 countries. I would also like to take this opportunity to make it abundantly clear that these generic drugs are not cheap in terms of quality," Azad said in his address to the General Assembly.

"It is important that considerations of commerce and profitability are not used to erect artificial barriers between life and death. I would also like to urge the international community to work together for removing barriers in the form of Intellectual Property Rights or other means," he said.

The international community, the minister said, must also ensure, that all flexibilities in TRIPS must be used for better availability of affordable medicines.