AHF calls on CIPLA to make AIDS Drug affordable in India

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AHF calls on CIPLA to make AIDS Drug affordable in India

Los Angeles, (ANTARA News/PRNewswire--AsiaNet) - CIPLA Prices

Generic Version of Tenofovir at $700 Per Year in India, While Making

Drug Available for Half That in Africa; High Domestic Price Means

Essential AIDS Drug Out of Reach for Most Indians Living With

HIV/AIDS.

In a letter addressed to Chemical, Industrial & Pharmaceutical

Laboratories (CIPLA) President Yusuf Hamied, AIDS Healthcare

Foundation, (AHF) operator of free HIV/AIDS treatment clinics in the

US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia -- including two in

India (in Mysore and Kushtagi) criticized the company for its too-

high domestic price for its generic version of the HIV/AIDS drug

tenofovir in India.

While praising CIPLA for its successful efforts to lower the cost of

lifesaving HIV/AIDS drugs in other parts of the developing world,

such as Africa, the letter decries the company's failure to make

these same drugs available at an affordable price to Indians in need.

In a March 2006 New York Times article regarding the pricing of

tenofovir, Mr Hamied stated that CIPLA's generic version is

currently being offered in India at the price of $700 per person per

year, but would eventually be made available in Africa at $350 per

person per year.

" Though it is commendable that CIPLA plans to increase access to

tenofovir in Africa with a lower drug price, the need for affordable

HIV/AIDS drugs in India is equally great, " said Weinstein,

AHF's President.

" India is now the country with the most people living with HIV/AIDS

in the world -- even surpassing South Africa, once the epicenter of

the epidemic.

With a Gross National Income per capita of $630, it is virtually

impossible for the majority of the 5.7 million people living with

HIV/AIDS in India to afford $700 per year for one AIDS drug, much

less an entire regimen.

We challenge CIPLA to reflect on its own position as one of the

leading producers of high-quality generic versions of lifesaving

AIDS medications and consider its responsibility to make those

medications easily available to its own people. "

The letter, dated August 4, 2006 and signed by Mr Weinstein, refers

to an advertisement placed by CIPLA to commemorate World AIDS Day in

the December 10th, 2005 issue of The Economist that asked: 'What's

the use of developing life-saving medicines if you can't make them

affordable to the patient?' Mr Weinstein states, " AHF agrees

wholeheartedly with this sentiment and takes it one step further by

asking you, as an Indian company, what's the use of developing these

life-saving medicines when 93% of Indians who are in such desperate

need for them, cannot afford them? "

According to a 2005 UNAIDS report, India now has the most people

living with HIV/AIDS with 5.7 million cases, surpassing South Africa

with 5.5 million cases.

India now accounts for two-thirds of all HIV/AIDS cases found in

Asia.

At the same time, India has become a major producer of high quality

generic copies of lifesaving drugs, enabling low-income countries

and countries hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic, especially in Sub-

Saharan Africa and parts of the Caribbean, to provide affordable

drugs to people in need.

Despite the contribution that generic manufacturing companies, such

as CIPLA, have made in increasing access to usually high-priced

antiretroviral therapies globally, these drugs are affordable only

to a tiny fraction of people in need of them in India.

About five in six people (84%) in need of antiretroviral treatment

in Asia are not receiving it.

In India, which has more than 70% of the region's total treatment

needs, coverage is estimated to be 7%; only 1.6% of pregnant women

and 3% of children who required it are accessing treatment.

SOURCE AIDS Healthcare Foundation

CONTACT:

Lori Yeghiayan, AHF Associate Director of Communications,

+1-323-860-5227

August 7, 2006

http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=17764