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| UNAIDS welcomes plan to reduce price of essential medicine |
| Lalit K Jha/PTI / Washington Aug 08, 2009, 11:34 IST |
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UNAIDS has welcomed the effort of the Clinton Foundation in association with the major pharmaceutical companies – Pfizer and Matrix – to reduce the prices of antiretroviral drugs for people living with AIDS and tuberculosis.
Former US President Bill Clinton, who heads the Clinton Foundation, had made an announcement in this regard in New York on Thursday.
"The reduction of prices of second line antiretroviral drugs will save lives," said Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
"These agreements will help improve the sustainability of national treatment programmes over the long term," Sidibe said.
Second line antiretroviral drugs were necessary when people living with HIV – currently estimated 33 million worldwide – fail to respond to standard treatment regimens.At the end of last year, an estimated five per cent of the four million people on antiretroviral treatment required second line drugs.
The need for these drugs was expected to rise in the coming years.
UNAIDS said the agreement with Matrix to make available three second line drugs in a single package will also contribute to the ease of delivery and help increase treatment adherence.
The agreement with Pfizer will enable people to seek treatment for TB – a leading cause of death for those living with AIDS – without interrupting their second line treatment.
"People living with HIV should not have to choose between TB and AIDS treatment," Sidibé said. "We have to stop people living with HIV from dying of TB." Meanwhile, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang is slated to attend the five-day International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific in Bali, Indonesia, starting Sunday.
Kang is expected to send a clear message stressing that the protection of human rights is indispensable in addressing the AIDS epidemic.
"HIV is not just a virus," she said. "It's also about people who endure discrimination and a wide array of human rights violations."
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