[Ip-health] Reuters-Doctors' Group Calls for More HIV Drug Price Cuts

[Rachel COHEN]

Doctors' Group Calls for More HIV Drug Price Cuts

 Mon Jul 12, 2004 02:34 PM ET



 By Deborah Mitchell

 BANGKOK (Reuters Health) - Antiretroviral drugs can dramatically increase
 survival of HIV-infected individuals in developing countries, but
 additional price reductions are needed for second-line drug combinations
 for patients who develop resistance to initial therapy, physicians with
 Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) reported here Monday.


 The independent humanitarian relief organization is now treating 13,000
 patients in 25 countries. The majority of such patients are using
 first-line regimens and pharmaceutical companies have reduced the price of
 these drugs by more than 90 percent.


 The cost of a fixed-dose combination treatment, consisting of one pill
 twice a day, is now about $200 a year, MSF said. But that cost jumps to
 $5,000 a year for second-line therapy.


 "Unless this situation changes, per patient costs will skyrocket and
 people will die needlessly," Dr. Alexandra Calmy, an HIV/AIDS advisor for
 MSF who is based in Paris, told attendees of the International AIDS
 Conference.


 Dr. Daniel Berman, of MSF's Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines,
 echoed Dr. Calmy's remarks, calling growing drug resistance and the high
 cost of second-line treatment a crisis.


 Dr. Calmy noted that it is inevitable that sooner or later patients in
 developing countries will develop resistance to first-line
 antiretrovirals. About 2 percent to 5 percent of patients receiving
 treatment through MSF need second-line therapy. However, because accurate
 diagnostics are lacking in most poor countries, she suspects that this
 percentage is actually higher.


 There is also a need to develop second-line fixed-dose drug formulations
 that do not need to be refrigerated and can be easily administered in
 developing countries. "We want to dramatically decrease the price of
 second-line therapy as we have done with first-line," Dr. Calmy added.


 Only about 7 percent of the six million who need antiretroviral treatment
 are receiving it. The World Health Organization has launched an ambitious
 program to provide three million people with antiretroviral drugs by the
 end of 2005.


 Dr. Calmy notes that MSF has demonstrated it is possible to treat large
 numbers of patients in remote areas of poor countries.

About 55 percent of the MSF patients are women. All patients receive the
treatment for free and get continuous support to ensure they adhere to
treatment. Most patients are in an advanced stage of AIDS when treatment
begins.

---
Rachel M. Cohen
U.S. Director, Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
Doctors Without Borders/M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res (MSF)
333 Seventh Avenue, 2nd Floor * New York, NY * 10001-5004 * USA
Tel: +1-212-655-3762
Mobile: +1-917-331-9077
Fax: +1-212-679-7016
E-mail: rachel.cohen@newyork.msf.org

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
http://www.accessmed-msf.org/