Poor countries to get cheap AIDS drugs

THE UN, former US President Bill Clinton, World Bank and the global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria have set up a joint plan to buy and distribute cheap, generic AIDS drugs in poor countries.

In a clear jab at the US government, they said they had negotiated discounts of 50% or more on HIV diagnostic tests and on drugs whose safety has been questioned by the Bush administration.

"Simply put, the Clinton Foundation will negotiate the drug prices; UNICEF will employ its procurement capacity and the Global Fund and World Bank will provide the funding," said Stephen Lewis, United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.

"There will be protocols and administrative requirements of course, but nothing should now stand in the way of rolling out treatment to hundreds of thousands soon to be millions in the immediate future."

And they will be cheap, Mr Lewis added.

"We're talking of fixed-dose combinations of generic drugs, pre-qualified by the World Health Organisation, to be purchased overwhelmingly from generic companies based in India, at prices as low as $140 (€120) per person per year." This is about a third to one-half of the lowest, discounted price now offered. In contrast, HIV cocktails can cost more than $10,000 (€8,300) a year when made with name-brand drugs in industrialised countries.

US President George W Bush's AIDS advisers have questioned the safety of these generics and has proposed not using US aid dollars to buy them. AIDS activist groups, the international relief group Doctors Without Borders and some members of Congress have accused the administration bowing to pressure from companies that make expensive, brand-name HIV drugs.

Generic drugmakers have raced to copy the drugs more cheaply, especially in Brazil and India. Mr Clinton's administration at first fought, then agreed not to oppose these manufacturers. "The pharmaceutical manufacturers included in these agreements are Aspen Pharmacare Holdings in South Africa; Cipla in India; Hetero Drugs Limited in India, Ranbaxy Laboratories in India; and Matrix Laboratories in India," the UN, Mr Clinton and other groups said in a joint statement.

"These medicines are critical components of the four regimens recommended by the World Health Organisation as 'first line' treatment for AIDS," they added. "In developing countries outside of Brazil, such life-sustaining therapy is available to fewer than 200,000 people living with the virus, though almost six million require it."

AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first identified in the early 1980s and infects more than 40 million worldwide. There is no cure but drug cocktails can hold the infection at bay, allowing patients to lead near-normal lives.