• Solidarity Day in Support of Treatment Access in South Africa. In April 2003, ITPC members joined in demonstrations in their own countries to urge the South African government to sign and implement a national treatment and prevention plan that includes antiretroviral treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS.


• Solidarity Day in Support of Thai Drug Users Network. In June 2003 ITPC members joined in demonstrations in their own countries to protest the extra-judicial killing of Thai drug users and to press for HIV/AIDS treatment for Intravenous Drug Users.


• First meeting of people with HIV/AIDS with the Director General of WHO. In November 2003, a delegation of eight people with HIV/AIDS and their advocates from ITPC travelled to Geneva for the first meeting between a Director General of the WHO and people living with HIV/AIDS from around the world. The group discussed the WHO’s 3X5 initiative to scale-up antiretroviral therapy to 3 million by 2005. The group also met with senior staff at UNAIDS and the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to discuss access to treatment.


• Inclusion of active drug users in the WHO 3X5 initiative. In February 2004, ITPC members, supported by over two hundred people which included drug users, HIV-positive people and their advocates from around the globe, called on the Director General of the WHO to ensure the equal involvement of active drug users in the scale-up of antiretroviral therapy proposed by the WHO and take a leading role in recommending governments to make healthcare principles a priority over the law enforcement approach to illicit drug use.


• Inclusion of Methadone on the WHO’s List of Essential Drugs and Medicines. In collaboration with harm reduction advocates across the world. ITPC members pushed for the inclusion of methadone on the WHO’s list of essential drugs and medicines as a part of a comprehensive approach to HIV/AIDS care. Methadone was approved for inclusion on the list in March 2005. This issue was first raised in the ITPC meeting with the WHO Director General in November 2003.


• World Community Advisory Board Meetings with Brand-Name and Generic Pharmaceutical Companies. In February 2004, ITPC members met with Boehringer Ingelheim, Glaxo Smith Kline and Roche to discuss concerns about drug pricing and research practices. In particular, ITPC advocated for new policies by multinational companies on pricing for middle-income countries. In January 2005, ITPC members met with generic drug makers, Cipla, Ranbaxy, Hetero and Strides, to discuss quality control over generic manufacturing, paediatric formulations, second-line regimens and pricing policies.


• Solidarity Day with FrontAIDS in Russia. In December 2004, ITPC members sent faxes to protest to the police station in Kaliningrad Russia, where dozens of activists from FrontAIDS were being held after staging a demonstration to demand access to treatment and human rights for drug users. All activists were promptly released from custody.


• Advocacy for the revision of the antiretroviral procurement list in Moldova. In 2003, ITPC members in the Newly Independent States discovered that Moldova was procuring an expensive, sub-optimal antiretroviral regimen with its grant from the Global Fund. Through advocacy with the Global Fund, the WHO and others, ITPC was instrumental in rectifying this situation.


• Protest on Health Sector Spending Caps by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. In September 2003, ITPC members sent a letter to the Managing Director of the IMF and the President of the World Bank to urge them to modify macroeconomic policies that keep health sectors from growing to meet the needs of the AIDS epidemic. A meeting with the IMF and the World Bank is scheduled for July 2005 to discuss these issues.


• 2006 World Community Advisory Board Meetings with Brand-Name and Generic Pharmaceutical Companies on July13-15, 2006 in London.  Please click here for the notes on this meeting.