BUCHAREST, April 19 (AFP) - The Romanian government set up an inquiry into the activities of the country's health ministry on Saturday after a senior US diplomat said AIDS medication was being sold to consumers there at grossly inflated prices.
In a sweeping broadside against widespread corruption US ambassador in Bucharest Michael Guest said Tuesday that AIDS drugs cost 50 percent more in Romania than they would in the United States, and accused the health ministry of corrupt dealings with suppliers.
The inquiry follows a report by a government watchdog which found that the health ministry had effectively barred foreign companies from taking part in the tendering process for a batch of AIDS drugs in 2002.
The report said that the health ministry "had not taken into consideration an agreement made with the (pharmaceutical) company GlaxoSmithKline which promised reductions of up to 87 percent in the price of AIDS medecines."
The contract was won by four Romanian importers, who levied "taxes and commissions worth up to 55 percent of the value of the drugs," the report said.
Romania has 7,904 registered AIDS patients including 6,200 children under 14 years of age.
Aid organisations say only one third of AIDS sufferers receive regular treatment with anti-retroviral drugs, which the health ministry claim to be too expensive.
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