Grandmothers rallied Wednesday on Parliament Hill to support a bill that will facilitate global access to treatments for HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculoses and other health threats.
“There are so many things that we in Canada just get and take for granted, that people in other parts of the world don't have,” said Rosemary Carter, a member of the Centretown-based group Capital Grandmothers.
Bill C-393 is a reform of Canada's Access to Medicines Regime, which came into force in 2005. The regime was supposed to facilitate the export of low-cost, generic medicine to developing countries.
But according to the Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development it has since proven ineffective, road-blocked by pharmaceutical companies that wish to keep drug costs high. According to Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, an organizer of the rally, Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime has only been used once: for a single shipment of medicine to a single country.
Bill C-393 would streamline the cumbersome administrative process currently required to export drugs under the regime.
“It's hard to see why it wouldn't pass,” said Jennifer Baniczky, another Capital Grandmothers member. “It will save children's lives.”
The protest was organised by the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign, along with other advocacy groups, including RESULTS Canada and the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.
Bill C-393 passed second reading in the House of Commons last December and will come before the standing committee on industry, science and technology in the next month, where it faces opposition from the brand-name pharmaceutical lobby.