[Ip-health] UNAIDS Asia/Pacific: Other countries should follow the Thailand example

[robert weissman]

*Sanchita Sharma
<http://www.hindustantimes.com/Search/Search.aspx?q=3DSanchita%20Sharma&nod=
ate=3D1>,
Hindustan Times*
Colombo, August 21, 2007
First Published: 03:05 IST(21/8/2007)
Last Updated: 03:09 IST(21/8/2007)


  Call for cheap generic drugs

UNAIDS on Monday urged countries, including India, to opt for compulsory
licensing under the Trips agreement to ensure people in need have access
to cheap generic second-generation drugs to treat HIV/AIDS.

Compulsory licensing allows countries to manufacture or import cheaper
generic (copycat) versions of patented life-saving drugs in a medical
emergency.

India is the world's biggest manufacturer of cheap unpatented drugs in
the world. "Governments cannot say they don't have money for the more
expensive second-generation drugs and abandon people under free
treatment under national programmes. Governments have the responsibility
to ensure care and if needed, go for compulsory licensing to import or
manufacture patented drugs. Other countries should follow the Thailand
example," says JVR Prasada Rao, Director, Regional Support Team, UNAIDS.

India provides free first-generation drugs to 82,000 people living with
HIV/AIDS. "India is one of the world's largest producers of
second-generation anti-retrovirals used to treat HIV/AIDS and yet it
does not provide it under its national programme," said Prasada Rao, who
was a secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

India has the largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the Asia
Pacific region. Of the 5.4 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the
region, roughly half -- 2.47 million -- live in India. Yet India
accounts for about a third of the people getting AIDS medicines under
the government programme -- India accounts for 82,000 of the 235,000
people who get AIDS drugs under public health programmes in the region.

"Countries in the region would support Thailand that defied big pharma
to save lives. I have been HIV-positive for 16 years, and if it wasn't
for medicines, I would have died years ago," says Sheeba, regional
coordinator, Asia Pacific Network of Positive People.
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