On Monday May 6, 2019, the Union for Affordable Cancer Treatment (UACT) submitted a letter to the Minister of Health urging Canada’s support of a proposed resolution on transparency to be discussed that the Seventy-second World Health Assembly this May. The proposed resolution provides a strong global mandate to expand the transparency of pricing, R&D costs, intellectual property rights and medical outcomes, for life-saving medical technologies. Currently, the resolution has garnered ten co-sponsors. See below for links to: UACT Letter to MOH of Canada Urging Support of WHA Transparency Resolution Draft of WHA72 Transparency Resolution (as of May 6, 2019) Text of the letter sentRead More →

The following is the UACT Statement on the July 26, 2018 draft of the NCD outcomes document. July 30, 2018 Today, for patients, their families and caregivers, it is clear that the prices of medicines for cancer and other non-communicable diseases are excessive, and that access to both new and even many older medicines is both restricted and shockingly unequal. None of these core truths is reflected in this draft declaration. It is obvious that the United Nations and the negotiators have been manipulated by the pharmaceutical manufacturers’ lobby to craft a weak and ineffective resolution that fails to address the most important challenges inRead More →

On June 8, 2018 Miroslav Lajčák (Slovak Republic), President of the United Nations General Assembly circulated the zero-draft of the Political Declaration of the third high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Italy (Ambassador Sebastiano Cardi) and Uruguay (Ambassador Elbio Rosselli) have served as the co-facilitators of this negotiation. The zero draft is the initial negotiating text framing the UN’s response to addressing the public health crisis of NCDs globally. Analogous to the high-level process for tuberculosis, this text will be the subject of intense negotiations with countries adding and deleting text over the next four weeks.Read More →

On May 11, 2018, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) held a “Stakeholder Listening Session” in the HHS Hubert H. Humphrey Building Auditorium, 200 Independence Ave, SW, Washington, DC 20201 to prepare for the SEVENTY-FIRST WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY A71/1 Geneva, Switzerland 21–26 May 2018 The provisional agenda for the WHA is here: http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA71/A71_1-en.pdf The meeting went from 3pm to about 4pm and about 45 participants had 2 minutes for each intervention on the many agenda item. Most speakers represented industries such as the manufacturers or the sugar related good industries. UACT registered to take the floor for the following item: 11.7 PreparationRead More →

On December 8, 2017, UACT submitted a letter to the US, Canadian, and Mexican representatives of the NAFTA re-negotiations. Please find below the full text of the letter. A PDF version is available here. Union for Affordable Cancer Treatment 1621 Connecticut Avenue NW Suite 500 Washington, DC 20009 Tel.: 202.332.2670 www.uact.org December 8, 2017 Dear NAFTA Delegates, The Union for Affordable Cancer Treatment (UACT), created in 2014, is a union of people affected by cancer, their family members and friends, people who take care of people with cancer, health care professionals and cancer researchers committed to increasing access to effective cancer treatment and care. WeRead More →