Panafrican News Agency - December 12, 2001

Partners in the project have mobilised financial resources to the tune of one billion US dollars for the first two phases of the project, said Dr Badara Samb of the WHO regional office for Africa.

Speaking at a news conference, during the 12th International Conference on AIDS and STDs in Africa (ICASA), now under way in the Burkina Faso capital, Dr Samb said efforts to broaden access to antiretrovirals (ARVs) are beginning to produce positive results in one out of five African countries.

The number of patients with access to ARVs in the countries which negotiated agreements with pharmaceutical companies has increased in the last ten months, even though the total figure represents a small portion of people in need of ARVs.

According to WHO statistics, Africa hosts 70 percent of the 40 million people living with HIV in the world.

Dr Samb recalled that 500 million dollars were mobilised to finance the first phase of the project, which started in 2000.

Nine African countries received funds from that amount to broaden ARV access to more people and three countries have just joined the number of beneficiaries.

According to Dr Samb, the United Nations agencies are working in various dimensions to ensure the success of the project, which makes ARV treatment accessible to the majority of AIDS patients.

First of all, the UN is making efforts to reduce or even repeal import tax on ARVs. The UN system is also discussing with its partners and pharmaceutical companies to reduce prices while making efforts for access to generic drugs.

"The prices of some ARVs were cut by 85 percent on average in sub-Saharan Africa thanks to this initiative," he noted.

The second phase of the project, set to start on 17 January 2002, aims at mobilising 500 million dollars to broaden access to health care even further.

A total of 72 countries - 41 in Africa, 24 in Latin America and the Caribbean - 3 in Europe and 4 in Asia - have showed interest in the process.

Senegal is currently discussing with the World Bank and will be one of the first African countries to benefit from the second phase, a World Bank official said.

According to Vicki Ehrich, representative of the six pharmaceutical companies involved in the project, the partnership between pharmacy, government, community and private sector will sensibly cut drug prices.

At the Glaxo Smithkline firm, the price of triple therapy is two dollars a day.

Recalling that access to drugs is a basic health right, Dr Aliou Keita, chairman of "Initiative Access to ARV" in Mali, said that case management of AIDS patients should be comprehensive and include the issue of reagents.

In that regard, he called on African governments to build up the capacity and competence of their health institutions in order to make access to health care a reality.

In addition to political commitment, Dr Sylla called for the involvement of the private sector in that effort.

Meanwhile, Marie Mendene, coordinator of the associations of people living with HIV in Cameroon, has suggested that people living with HIV and the private sector should be involved in the management of funds allocated for that purpose in order to facilitate access to health care.

The initiative "Acc l rer l'Acc s" has adopted an approach for the "setting of regional prices" which fosters the provision of lower cost drugs through regional supply.

The setting up of regional networks enables countries to have better access to technical support which enhances their programmes.
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