BEIJING, Oct 11 (AFP) - China plans to remove import duties on foreign drugs used to treat people with AIDS, state press said Friday, the latest in a series of measures designed to help the country's spiralling numbers of AIDS patients.
Imported anti-AIDS medication will be exempted from duties "in the near future" so as to ease the burden on sufferers, the China Daily quoted anonymous sources as telling other official media.
No more details were available, but the measure was expected to "greatly reduce the price of the drugs," the newspaper added.
In recent months, Beijing has stepped up efforts to slash prices for AIDS drugs, which are far beyond the reach of all but the richest Chinese patients.
Last month a senior health ministry official warned China could break patents on Western AIDS medicines if talks with foreign pharmaceutical companies over cutting prices did not succeed soon, although he later denied this was planned.
In August, officials said a domestically made variant of the drug AZT -- costing about a 10th of imported versions -- would be available soon.
Imported drug cocktails to treat AIDS cost around 2,000 to 3,000 yuan (240 to 360 dollars) a month, far too much for the vast majority of AIDS patients, most of whom come from poor rural areas.
China has a pressing need for cheaper AIDS drugs.
According to a UN report released in June, the country could have around 1.5 million people carrying HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and faces an "AIDS catastrophe" if a swift measures are not taken.
In an unusually frank assessment of the crisis, a top Beijing health official warned last month that by the end of the decade there could be 10 million Chinese HIV carriers.
However this openness has limits.
In late August, prominent Chinese AIDS campaigner Wan Yanhai was detained for four weeks on charges of allegedly leaking state secrets in his work.
Wan has been particularly active in publicising the plight of rural communities devastated by the virus through the activities of insanitary government-approved blood collectors during the 1980s and 1990s.
021011
AF021041
Copyright © AFP or Agence France-Presse, 2002 - All Rights Reserved. AFP articles contained on the AEGiS web site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without AFP's prior written permission. You may make one copy of each article for your personal, non-commercial use only; more copies would require AFP's prior written permission.. http://www.afp.com/
AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, the National Library of Medicine, and donations from users like you. Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2002. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
©1990, 2002 - AEGiS. AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content.
