Events

Cut in prices from 25% to 50% in developing countries for second-line antiretroviral drugs for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, announced Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, Executive Board Chairman of UNITAID, in partnership with the Clinton Foundation

Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, Executive Board Chairman of the international Drug Purchase Facility UNITAID, has announced a major cut in the prices of second-line drugs against HIV/AIDS, which has been obtained by UNITAID in partnership with the Clinton Foundation. President Bill Clinton made a similar announcement simultaneously in New York.

Thanks to the partnership between UNITAID - which committed over $120 million in 2007 and 2008 to the second-line antiretroviral (ARV) procurement programme - and the Clinton Foundation, a cut in pharmaceutical companies’ prices of 25% in low-income countries and 50% in middle-income countries has been obtained.

The agreement covers seven different ARV formulations. An international call for competitive bids was launched open to all pharmaceutical companies manufacturing branded and generic drugs capable of meeting the quality requirements of UNITAID. Following this procedure, Matrix Laboratories for example will be selling Abacavir at $331 (compared with an average price of $700) and Tenofovir at $149 (compared with an average price of $300). Cipla has agreed to sell Tenofovir at $151. Ranbaxy will supply Didanosine at $156. Abbott will supply a heat-stable form of Kaletra at $500 in low-income countries and at $1,000 in middle-income countries. A new round of discussions is likely to lead to future announcements of price reductions before the end of the year.

Some 258,000 to 302,000 patients are currently receiving second-line treatments, whereas 361,000 to 445,000 are in urgent need of them, above all in Africa. Of the total number of sufferers, 10% may need second-line ARVs before the end of the decade, id est an extra 400,000 to 500,000 patients, 70% of them in low-income countries. UNITAID’s target is to cover the needs of 40,000 new patients in 2007 and 69,000 in 2008.

Twenty-seven countries (23 of them in sub-Saharan Africa) are already benefiting from the programme in 2007. The first supplies for 2007 will be arriving from July on (notably in Cameroon, Botswana, Benin, Chad, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Haiti, Togo or Thailand).

UNITAID is continuing negotiations with its operating partners (WHO, Global Fund, UNICEF, Clinton Foundation, Roll Back Malaria, Stop TB, etc.) to reduce prices and make treatments against HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis affordable in the countries of the South.

The Consultative Forum that took place today in Geneva, which gathered numerous actors implicated in UNITAID (members and recipient countries, NGOs, international organizations, pharmaceutical companies, local associations, etc.), has also given the opportunity to announce the finalization of the accession to UNITAID of the Gates foundation and Spain.