Lowering the Cost of AIDS Drugs While Searching for a Cure

by Bob Meyers 0 comments

ROME -- With all the excitement generated at the recent AIDS conference around Treatment as Prevention, the question that never goes away is – who pays? In the developed world – generally speaking, the northern hemisphere – a higher degree of affluence and insurance infrastructure can handle the costs. In the developing world – generally, the southern hemisphere – the impact of poverty makes treatment for the disease all that more difficult, if not impossible.

It is believed that today only one out of every three people who need AIDS drugs for treatment is able to access them. A unique mechanism has been developed to try to change that situation.

Exactly one year ago, in July 2010, the Medicines Patent Pool was established to bring down the cost and increase the availability of HIV/AIDS drugs. It does this through voluntary licensing arrangements with the drugs’ manufacturers, protecting their rights to the drugs in the developed world but then, by agreement, turning around and licensing the drugs for generic manufacturers in India, for sale in low and middle income countries.

So far, the only company to have signed on to this agreement is Gilead Sciences, the manufacturer of tenofovir, an antiretroviral drug, and Truvada (which includes tenofovir). The company says that the lowest available price for its drugs under this arrangement is $6.15 per patient per month, or 21 cents a day – dramatically less than an AIDS patient in the U.S. or Western Europe would pay.

This is the way Gilead Sciences explained its actions with regard to the manufacturers of generic drugs.

The Medicines Patent Pool was itself established by UNITAID, an interesting non-profit that supports access and funding for HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria medicines (despite the acronym it is not affiliated with the United Nations). UNITAID was established in 2006 to provide sustainable revenues for drug distribution in low and middle income countries. The method of financing? An almost unnoticeable tax on airplane tickets. Since 2006 UNITAID says it has committed nearly $500 million USD for AIDS treatments in low and middle income countries.

The Pool is not the only approach to drug development and distribution. The Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) announced in Rome that it was launching a program to address the unmet needs of children under 12 with HIV/AIDS.

“Children living with HIV/AIDS are a neglected population, and pediatric AIDS can be considered a neglected disease,” Dr. Marc Lallemant, the newly appointment head of the DNDi’s pediatric program said. “We cannot neglect the millions of children currently and newly infected with the virus who are in dire need of treatment today.”

 DNDi was set up in 2003 by Medicines Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and other groups. Since its founding eight years ago it has developed new treatments for malaria, late-stage sleeping sickness and visceral leishmaniasis in Africa.

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Prevention, treatment and care of people with HIV or AIDS have long been regarded as the essential pieces of a compassionate response. Now, in the wake of the successful trials of “Treatment as Prevention,” the International AIDS Society is taking the next logical – but daring step – seeking a cure for the disease itself.

The effort will be headed by Professor Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, the co-discoverer of HIV, Nobel Laureate and the president-elect of the IAS. Basically, Prof. Barre-Sinoussi is putting together a strategic approach, in order to map out priorities and develop resources. It is being done, of course, against the background of a global recession, a concern that the search for a cure does not undercut the continued need for funding for treatment and ongoing care for those with HIV or AIDS. You can read about the IAS cure campaign here.

Posts in this series:

• Story Ideas for Journalists from the Rome 2011 IAS Conference
• What the HIV Experience Can Teach the NCD Community
• Lowering the Cost of AIDS Drugs While Searching for a Cure
• Three Exciting AIDS Trials