Re: $360-$600 annual HIV drug cost in China

[Guest guest]

I am in no way trying to defend the drug companies by saying this, but it does occur to me that all the expenses for researching, testing and developing these drugs falls upon us. Countries like China get off cheap by simply stealing it. Not that I can blame them -- they have to do whatever is necessary to save lives. But it certainly does make a difference in the cost of the drug in their country versus ours.

In a message dated Wed, 8 Jan 2003 14:56, "Mike Failing" writes:

I'm not suggesting I would want to move to Brazil or China, but it is frustrating to see what is possible elsewhere when profit takes a back seat to humanitarian concerns and/or simple common sense about saving lives to limit the long term public expense of an epidemic.

China to Start AIDS Drug Mass-Production in January

Mon Dec 30

By Yu-Tzu Chiu

TAIPEI (Reuters Health) - Four drugs to treat HIV (news - web sites) infection will be mass produced in China starting in January, the Chinese Health Minister Zhang Wenkang has reported, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

China, which woke up to a looming HIV crisis publicly for the first time last year, has joined an international debate on making drugs more accessible in the developing world. Since then, the government has negotiated with foreign drug giants to bring down costs and spearheaded domestic production.

In November, drug firm Shanghai Desano Biopharmaceutical Co said it had been given government approval to sell the first Chinese-made HIV drug combination. A competitor, Northeast China Pharmaceuticals Group Company, has also begun producing drugs.

According to Xinhua, four drugs--zidovudine, didanosine, stavudine and nevirapine--would be available in China soon and mass production would reduce annual treatment expense for each AIDS (news - web sites) patient by 90%. The annual expense for each patient is set to be around 3,000 and 5,000 yuan ($360-$600).

Dr. Zhao Hongxin, in charge of the AIDS center of Beijing Ditan Hospital, told Reuters Health on Monday that the hospital so far had received no official notification about the availability of China-made AIDS drugs from the Ministry of Health.

"We are not quite sure when locally produced AIDS drugs would be available at clinics, even though we've heard of the cost reduction news for months," Zhao said.

Zhao told Reuters Health that currently AIDS patients at the hospital spend between 30,000 and 40,000 yuan ($3,600-$4,800) annually for the treatment using drugs from overseas.

As of June, 2002, Zhang said, about one million Chinese people have been confirmed as HIV positive, including 200,000 AIDS patients.

Zhang confirmed that the State Council approved one of ministry's projects that plans to spend 22 million yuan ($2.64 million) annually from 2002 to 2004 tackling the epidemic in the most seriously effected provinces, such as Henan, Hubei and others in central China, according to Xinhua.

Although China's official record showing the number of AIDS and HIV cases in 2002 was one million, climbing up from 600,000 in 2001, the UN suggests the number is closer to 1.5 million and could hit 10 million by the end of 2010.