Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - Wednesday, September 5, 2001
Marcelo Ballve
For years, developing nations complained that prices for HIV drugs put them out of their reach. Then in March, New Jersey-based Merck announced it would sell two HIV treatments at no profit in the world's poorest and hardest-hit nations -- including eight Caribbean countries.
"The excuse in the past always has been we can't afford these drugs," said Sean Hughes, head of Merck's HIV/AIDS drug initiative in the Caribbean.
The discounts were for its HIV drugs Stocrin and Crixivan. Patients in Haiti, Trinidad, the Dominican Republic, Guyana and Suriname would pay around $1,100 for an annual dosage of both drugs, about 85 percent less than the cost in the United States.
In St. Lucia, Jamaica and St. Kitts, patients would pay a little less than $2,000 for a dosage of both.
With an estimated 2 percent infection rate among a population of some 25 million, the Caribbean, excluding Cuba, has the world's second-highest infection rates after Africa.
But Caribbean authorities said many still could not afford the drugs and that cash-strapped governments also could not easily bankroll treatment programs, even with Merck's discounts.
Hughes said agreements to make the discounted drugs available through private distributors were being worked out.
Part of the problem is that Africa's staggering AIDS problem has overshadowed the Caribbean's.
Loans and discounted drugs have poured into the continent, while the Caribbean's AIDS crisis has only recently received attention from international donor organizations.
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