Please distribute widely.



***************************************



Canada-wide advocacy campaign in support of

*Neglected Disease Research & Development*





We are a group of medical students from the McGill International Health
Initiative and we are proposing a *Canada-wide advocacy campaign *in support
of a crucial resolution concerning Global health justice.



Under the present framework of drug development and delivery, treatments for
diseases that affect the world's poorest get the least funding. There is
little profit to be made in finding affordable treatments for these
diseases.



A resolution that will be presented at World Health Assembly at the end of
May 2006 aims to correct this unacceptable situation. Entitled " *Global
Framework on essential health research and development", *the mandate of
this global framework will be to create a Working Group of interested Member
States to examine incentives to encourage greater, more sustainable
investment in medicines and other products specifically for diseases that
disproportionately affect developing countries.



*Our goal is to convince the Canadian government to take a leadership role
in support of this resolution. ***



If you are interested in this cause, we invite you to raise awareness
amongst the general public by any of the following ways:

·         Writing letters to politicians or approaching them directly

For a list of Members of Parliament:
http://webinfo.parl.gc.ca/MembersOfParliament/MainMPsCompleteList.aspx?TimePeriod=Current&Language=E



·         Writing to the Minister of Health, Tony Clement:



Minister's Office - Health Canada
Brooke Claxton Building, Tunney's Pasture
Postal Locator: 0906C
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
K1A 0K9



Fax: (613) 952-1154



·         Voicing this issue in the media (newspapers, radio, TV,
websites...)



We are also in the process of preparing a petition urging the Canadian
government to support this resolution at the upcoming world health assembly.
If you are interested in working with us or have additional suggestions,
please respond to this email.



For further information about this cause, and to sign the R&D Appeal:

http://www.researchappeal.org/index.php



In addition, you can check out our website at:
http://www.treatthepeople.com/mihi/



Thank you for reading! We look forward to hearing from you and collaborating
on this project.



Sincerely yours,



The MIHI Advocacy Team

Access CANCHID archives at: https://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/canchid.html
plus CANCHID subscription management. CANCHID is a joint service of the Canadian Society for International Health < http:www.csih.org > and the Distributed Knowledge Project at York University.  Queries to: [log in to unmask]