Events

With rising safety concerns amidst the recent Coronavirus scare, we regret to inform you that our film screening event for "Fire in the Blood" on March 16 has been postponed to a later date. We will inform you of the revised event date as soon as the new schedule is confirmed. We apologize for the inconvenience caused.

Columbia Global Centers | Mumbai invites you to a screening of the highly acclaimed documentary film “Fire in the Blood” followed by a discussion with Dr. Yusuf Hamied, Non-Executive Chairman of Cipla and Dr. Nerges Mistry, Director of Foundation for Medical Research, Mumbai.

Universal access to treatment has always been a long standing public health issue. Despite the advent of life-saving medications, HIV and AIDS claims millions of lives every year.  "Fire in the Blood" is the story of the fight for access to life-saving medicines in the global South, the region arguably hardest hit in the early waves of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.  It showcases the policies, practitioners, and patients who came together to save millions of lives. The film traces the controversial dimension of how monopolistic practices by Western pharmaceutical companies may have blocked the flow of low-cost life-saving AIDS medications.  It also interweaves stories of HIV-positive people who survived because they could afford medications that kept the virus in check.  
Directed by Dylan Mohan Gray, "Fire in the Blood" was the official selection of over 100 leading film festivals in 45 countries, including the competition section of the Sundance Film Festival 2013.  It has been screened before the United Nations, the World Health Assembly, the European Parliament in Brussels, and the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.

This event is part of a series on Access to Treatment organized in partnership with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. 

To register, please send an email to [email protected]

About the discussants:

Dr. Yusuf K. Hamied is the Non-Executive Chairman of Cipla and an Indian Scientist. He has been influential in pioneering the development of multi-drug combination pills, notably for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, asthma and other ailments as well as the development of pediatric formulations of drugs, especially those benefiting children in poor settings. He is also highly regarded for his role in expanding the production of bulk drugs and "active pharmaceutical ingredients" in India. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honor, by the Government of India in 2005.  He was also awarded a National Award from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India for successful commercialization of publicly funded R & D. He was elected a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, UK in 2004. He received an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry, which is awarded to individuals who are distinguished in the science or profession of chemistry, in 2012. In the same year, he was also awarded the 'CNN-IBN Indian of the Year' in the category of business by CNN-IBN. In late 2013, he was named one of India's '25 Greatest Global Living Legends' by news broadcaster NDTV.

Dr. Nerges Mistry is a Director and Trustee of The Foundation for Medical Research, Mumbai and The Foundation for Research in Community Health, Pune. A microbiologist and immunologist by training from the University of Mumbai and The University of Birmingham, U.K, Dr. Mistry’s work encompasses infectious diseases with a recent focus on the molecular epidemiology of multidrug resistance tuberculosis and the mechanisms of acquisition of rapid drug resistance in tuberculosis and its public health implications. Dr. Mistry has over 81 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has been a principal investigator of over 28 major research projects.