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In an endeavour
to make life-saving drugs more widely available
to people with AIDS in the developing world,
former US president Bill Clinton announced that
his foundation has reached an agreement with
drug manufacturers on a major reduction in the
price of
AIDS medicine. The agreement covers
antiretroviral
drugs (ARVs) delivered to people
in Africa and the Caribbean, where the Clinton
Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative is working with
governments and organisations
to set up
country-wide integrated care, treatment and
prevention programmes. As an example, under the
Clinton Foundation agreement, the price of a
commonly used triple drug therapy combination
will be substantially reduced to around 37 cents
per person per day
(less than $140 per person
per year). Overall, the agreement will reduce
the price of drugs in the developing world by
one-third to one-half. The Clinton Foundation is
also focusing on ways to scale up production of
so-called ‘triple drug cocktails’, which can
substantially extend the lives of people living
with AIDS and help prevent
mother-to-child
transmission of HIV.
Clare Short, British secretary of state for
international development, said, "…we must
complement this
[reduction in HIV/AIDS drug
prices] by a combined effort to build basic
health systems in developing countries.
We need
to be clear, no matter how cheap the drugs,
most
poor people will not receive them because there
is no health system that reaches them. This is
the priority for the next 10 years if we are to
meet the challenge of
the Millennium Development
goals." Worldwide
5-6 million people living with
AIDS currently need treatment to save their
lives. With more than
40 million people infected
with HIV that number will rise substantially
over the next few years. However, only about 300
000 people in the developing world are receiving ARVs. In sub-Saharan Africa only about 50 000
people are on ARVs out of 4 million in need of
the medicine. "The crisis of AIDS in the
developing world requires an emergency response
from the global community," former president
Clinton said. "I applaud these manufacturers for
doing
the right thing."
The Clinton Foundation is working closely with
the
World Health Organization and UNAIDS on the
‘3 by 5’ programme to scale up AIDS care and
treatment
in developing countries. It is also
working with other organisations, such as the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria. Through its collaboration with the WHO,
UNAIDS and the Global Fund, the foundation hopes
to extend the benefits of this program to other
countries and organisations that provide
treatment in the developing world and that have
instituted appropriate safeguards. The drug
manufacturers that have signed agreements with
the Clinton Foundation include: Aspen Pharmacare
Holdings Ltd, of Johannesburg, South Africa;
Cipla Ltd, of Mumbai, India; Ranbaxy
Laboratories Ltd, of Delhi, India; and
Matrix
Laboratories Ltd, of Hyderabad, India. The World
Health Organisation and the Medicines Control
Council of South Africa (MCC) have certified
that ARVs supplied by these companies are of
high quality. |
