The UN and NGOs have entered into an agreement with laboratories to ensure access to newer and more effective generics at affordable prices.
Developing countries will have access to generic antiretrovirals. For less than 75 dollars per year (62 euros) and per person, the HIV-positive patients will be able to have the last molecules, announced the United Nations this Friday.
Pharmaceutical companies Mylan and Aurobindo Pharma have signed an agreement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Kenyan and South African governments, as well as the UN, Reuters reported. They will produce millions of tablets containing one of the latest combinations of antiretroviral drugs (tenofovir, lamivudine and dolutegravir). It is considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “a drug of first quality”, noted the UN.
This international agreement is considered “capital” by experts and stakeholders because it makes HIV treatment more affordable for poor countries and will facilitate access to treatment for more than 36.7 million people living with HIV in the country. world. Almost half of these patients would still not have treatment in 2016.
It also makes it possible to provide recent formulas for which resistance to treatments has been observed.
Africa, the first to benefit from it
At least 92 countries are expected to benefit from this agreement. The African continent, which alone has more than 25 million people living with HIV in 2016, will be the first to benefit. For South African Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, the massive price cuts could generate “savings of up to $ 900 million over the next six years,” meaning the country will be able to treat more patients with the same amount. money and “control the epidemic faster”.
In Africa, some fifteen countries are on the way to controlling the epidemic, led by Botswana, Malawi and Uganda.
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