Make Medicines Affordable
Corporate monopolies and the overpricing of essential medicines leads to millions of preventable deaths each year.
The Make Medicines Affordable campaign works to bring down the price of HIV, TB and Hepatitis-C treatments and demand medicine equality.
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Noi lost a baby to lack of HIV treatment: "If a pharma exec saw my baby die they'd still overprice their drugs", she says.
"I was told I’d have to wait for 10 more people to die before I could get treatment" - Kularb. Drugs were in short supply and the waiting list meant waiting for death - yours or someone elses.
Vera found out she was living with HIV while pregnant with her first child. Her doctor advised her to terminate the pregnancy. She now works for a HIV organisation and the son she gave birth to is a healthy teenager. Kyiv, Ukraine.
"During my son’s birth no-one spoke to me - except to shout at me" - Vera.
"When a woman is diagnosed with HIV you must wrap her in love, care and support – like a baby" - Vera.
Valeria's grandmother is a source of inspiration: "She was the first communist feminist!," she says.
"I suddenly realised that if we didn’t do it no-one would do it. I thought no-one gives a fuck about our fucking HIV. I was furious" - Valeria crossed the frontline of occupied Ukraine to get HIV treatment to prisoners in 2014.
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"I was told I had two years to live. I feel very lucky. It’s over 20 years later and I have a healthy life, a husband and step-children" - Natalia, living with HIV in Ukraine.
"I planned my own funeral so my mother wouldn't have to" - Jeed, Thailand.
"There were no ARVs, no treatment, no cure. We’d play guitar, share a smoke. The only treatment was a hug" - Loon, India.
"Groundbreaking HIV research has saved millions of lives - but the decisions taken by pharma executives have ended millions of others" - Othoman Mellouk, MMA campaign lead.
"After my wife’s labour, the medical staff made sure we would never have another child" - Andrei, a priest in Ukraine. His wife was sterilised without her knowledge on account of her positive HIV status. The couple tried for a second child for years, not knowing their option had been forcibly removed.
