EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 78/632

(2004/C 78 E/0669)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3703/03

by Ulla Sandbæk (EDD) to the Commission

(3 December 2003)

Subject: HIV and Commission support for development of affordable microbicide

Can the Commission provide a comprehensive account of its previous and ongoing support for microbicide research and development, including community preparedness efforts, both within the EU and in developing countries to date, and specifically provide detailed information on the timing of such support, to whom it was allocated and from which budget lines it was drawn?

Answer given by Mr Nielson on behalf of the Commission

(23 December 2003)

There are several Community initiatives to help develop microbicides and make them readily available.

The communication on ‘increased solidarity to confront AIDS in developing countries’ (1) adopted by the Commission on 3 July 1998 provided a framework for the European response to appeals for greater international solidarity with developing countries in their fight against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV/AIDS) and, in particular, to appeals for wider access to HIV/AIDS treatment and the development of HIV vaccines and microbicides for the developing countries. The Commission's communication explores the possibility of supporting the accelerated development of vaccines and microbicides.

The Community has initiated and supervised a study into the market potential for vaginal microbicides which could protect against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), notably HIV.

Research was carried out on 4 000 individuals in Brazil, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, France, India, Kenya, the Philippines, Poland, South Africa, Thailand and Venezuela.

In 2000, a call for proposals was launched under budget heading (B7-6211) to support innovative programmes in the fields identified in the communication on increased solidarity. The project ‘Microbicide Awareness, Investment and Demand’ was selected. It advocates support for microbicides in Europe, Africa and Asia and putting in place networks to develop them more rapidly and make them available to the most vulnerable, notably women in developing countries. This project, worth EUR 1 450 071 and signed in December 2001 for a duration of three years, is being implemented by International Family Health.

One of the objectives of Regulation (EC) No 1568/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 July 2003 on aid to fight poverty diseases in developing countries (2), covering the period 2003-2006, is to intensify research and development, notably on vaccines, microbicides and innovative treatments.

The 2004 action plan for the budget item concerned (21 02 07 02) provides for a grant of EUR 0,87 million for the International Partnership for Microbicides. That organisation's goal is to speed up the discovery, development and access to microbicides to prevent HIV infection, notably in places where incomes are low. The grant will finance a project to develop a model for rapid access to microbicides in those countries where they are needed and implement this preparatory framework in the form of case studies in four countries. The Commission is part of a consultative group on the preparedness of those countries within this International Partnership For Microbicides.

The sixth European framework programme for research (2002-2006) has a special field for poverty diseases which includes research into microbicides. The Commission selected in 2003 two basic research projects on microbicides, one on blocking entry of the HIV virus into the cell and the other on replication of the virus in the mucus. These two projects bring together the best European specialists in this field along with teams of specialists from Africa, comprising 40 partners in all, of which three in Africa. Their budget amounts to more than EUR 15 million and they are in the process of negotiating with the coordinators with a view to starting in the first quarter of this year.

(1) COM(98)407.

(2) OJ L 224, 6.9.2003.