Free AIDS drugs from today, with or without price pact
P.T. Jyothi Datta, Mumbai , March 31

THE absence of an agreement on drug prices will not hold up the
Government's initiative to make free anti-AIDS drugs available to
people living with HIV/AIDS from April 1.

The Government will kick off the first quarter of the free AIDS-drugs
initiative on Thursday in eight centres located in States where the
prevalence of the illness is high. The anti-AIDS drugs to support the
first quarter of this initiative have been procured by the World
Health Organisation (WHO), said Ms Meenakshi Datta Ghosh, Project
Director, National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO).

Speaking to Business Line, she said that WHO has, through its
existing procurement mechanism, sourced and delivered the medicines
at the identified centres, giving the Government four months to sort
out drug price issues with pharma companies.

By that time the elections would be over and the new Government would
be in place, which would help budget the allocations to support the
programme. The Union Health Minister, Ms Sushma Swaraj, announced the
free anti-AIDS drugs programme on the eve of the last World AIDS Day
(December 1). The cost of the project was estimated to be Rs 200
crore.

Meanwhile, organisations working in the health sector said that
pharmaceutical companies such as Cipla that were active in making
anti-AIDS drugs accessible in Africa, needed to bring down prices in
India too.

"India has about 4.2 million people suffering from the illness and
about 10 per cent of them would require drugs. If pharma companies
were able to offer drugs to the Clinton Foundation at prices close to
Rs 17 per day per patient ($140 or about Rs 6,078 for a year), they
should be able to match that or better it for Indian patients."
Pharma company representatives, however, said that prices and
accessing drugs are not related. "It is not the money that makes a
difference - the infrastructure to make the drugs available needs to
be in place, the medical fraternity needs to be trained on the issue
and systems need to be in place to monitor the administration of the
medicines to keep a check on patients developing drug resistance."
Further, they point out that the Government's promise of fiscal
incentives to the pharma and diagnostic companies got derailed with
the Government going into an election mode, thus delaying the
budgeting exercise.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/04/01/stories/200404010268050
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