Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Miami Herald - Friday, December 14, 2001
Brahima Ouedraogo
Zimbabwe and Ghana are making final deals under which Thailand would provide the technical expertise needed to set up factories to produce the drugs in Africa, WHO representative Mariane Ngoulla said.
Ngoulla, who heads a research unit on traditional medicine at WHO's Africa headquarters in Zimbabwe, was speaking at the 12th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Africa, which ended in Ouagadougou on Thursday.
Thailand's state-run Government Pharmaceutical Organization announced in October that it would start manufacturing locally produced HIV drugs by year's end that would cut the cost of treatment in half.
Ngoulla said generic drugs produced in African factories could cost patients less than $350 per year -- about three times less than current cut-rate prices available in some countries.
Anti-retroviral drug combinations have changed HIV from a virtual death sentence to a manageable condition in Western countries, but their high cost prohibits most infected Africans from using them.
This year, 10 African countries signed agreements with major pharmaceutical companies to receive the drugs at a fraction of their cost in Western nations, WHO says. But even at prices reduced by as much as 90 percent, few Africans can afford them.
About 28 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, according to UNAIDS. Only about 30,000 have access to anti-retroviral drugs.
"Patient access to treatments means making drugs available at prices people can afford," Ngoulla said.
WHO wants to see all countries in Africa gain access to low-cost HIV drugs produced on the continent, she said.
"We have the facilities, and they are underutilized. Now the question is how to produce cheaper drugs with equal quality and efficiency," Ngoulla said.
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