on CIPLA'S offer and Government of India

[Guest guest]

Dear Dr. Agrawal and other Forum members,

CIPLA's offer is US$ 350/- per year for tripple drug combination

(3TC+d4T+NVP) for MSF with the condition that the MSF distributes for free

and US$ 600/- per year for Governments in Africa and other developing

countries. CIPLA will offer with same conditions to ndia. Because there is

no NGO who is willing or capable to provide drugs for free, the only

availability is the second one.

Currently, three drugs cost about 1000/- US$ per year; which is because the

governments recover Excise duty, Sales Tax and Octroi, which amounts to almost

40% of the cost. If the drugs get status of 'Life-Saver' medicines, these levies

can go.

In nut shell, our Governments are so apathetic and callous that rather than

providing any subsidy to patients of HIV/AIDS for ART, they recover levies on

the purchase of ART.

Dr.I.S.Gilada

Secretary General,

People's health Organisation (India)

ihoaids@...

[Guest guest]

Dear Dr. Joshi,

I was pleased to read your response to my posting on e FORUM

and more so with the news that the Govt. of India (GOI) has already

waived out the Excise duty on anti-retroviral drugs. However,

I regret to inform you that even one month after your posting we

do not see any effect in pricing of ART drugs and Excise duty is

still charged.

Would you please follow-up with the GOI and do the needful to

pass on the benefit of this historic decision to people with

HIV/AIDS on ART.

I am delighted to learn that NACO under your stewardship is

looking for constructive suggestions; which we were passing on

since over a decade to NACO and GOI, but there were hardly any

takers. As for the current time, I would like to suggest that,

a) the GOI includes ART drugs in the list of Essential

Medicines as Life-Savers

The GOI pleads with the states to waive Sales Tax and Octroi

duty on ART drugs

c) the GOI/ NACO makes effort to buy ART drugs in bulk at the

prices offered to MSF/ African Governments and distributes them

at low cost through different outlets

Sincerely yours,

Dr.I.S.Gilada

Secretary General,

Peoples Health Organisation (India)

e-mail:ihoaids@...