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Posted on 04/05/2004 10:28:09 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
The U.N., World Bank (news - web sites), the Global Fund to fight AIDS (news - web sites), Tuberculosis and Malaria and former U.S. president Bill Clinton (news - web sites) said on Tuesday they had set up a joint plan to buy and distribute cheap, generic AIDS drugs in poor countries.
In a clear jab at the U.S. government, they said they had negotiated discounts of 50 percent or more on HIV (news - web sites) 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 (news - web sites) will employ its procurement capacity and the Global Fund and World Bank will provide the funding," Stephen Lewis, United Nations (news - web sites) Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, said in a statement.
"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, Lewis said.
"We're talking of fixed-dose combinations of generic drugs, pre-qualified by the World Health Organization (news - web sites), to be purchased overwhelmingly from generic companies based in India, at prices as low as $140 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 a year when made with name-brand drugs in industrialized countries.
President Bush (news - web sites)'s AIDS advisers have questioned the safety of these generics and has proposed not using U.S. aid dollars to buy them.
AIDS activist groups, the international relief group Doctors Without Borders (news - web sites) and some members of Congress have accused the administration bowing to pressure from companies that make expensive, brand-name HIV drugs.
RACE TO COPY EXPENSIVE DRUGS
Generic drugmakers have raced to copy the drugs more cheaply, especially in Brazil and India. 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 U.N., Clinton and other groups said in a joint statement.
"These medicines are critical components of the four regimens recommended by the World Health Organization 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.
Diagnostic tests included in the agreements are CD4 tests (tests of immune system health) from Beckman Coulter, Inc. and Becton Dickinson and Co. and viral load tests from Bayer Diagnostics, bioMerieux and Roche Diagnostics.
"The prices available for these tests under the agreement include machines, training, regents and maintenance and are up to 80 percent cheaper than otherwise available in the market," the U.N. said.
"We regard AIDS as being the single most important issue at the moment in Africa because of the devastating effect that it has had throughout the continent, and it is not something that is deferrable to discussions of economic or other issues," World Bank President James Wolfensohn said.
Clinton, good guy, gives drugs cheap, Bush bad guy, wants drugs safe.
Hey Hilliary: While we're on the subject of the UN, what did you and the hubby know about Oil For Food, and when did you know it?
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