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Scientists and activists form firm to sell cut-price drugs
Di Caelers. 05 August 2003. Cape Argus. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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A group of top HIV/AIDS scientists and activists have joined forces in a "pharmaceutical wholesaler", in a bid to channel cheap anti-AIDS drugs to people with HIV/AIDS.
The leader of the HIV/AIDS activist group the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Zackie Achmat, a member of the board of the new Section 21 company, said if the government did not have "the political will" to advance access to anti-retrovirals, and if drug companies "don't come to the party" with voluntary licences, the new company would do the job.
Called the Generic Anti-retroviral Procurement Project, or Garrp, the board includes such HIV/AIDS research heavyweights as scientists Quarraisha Abdool Karrim of the Nelson Mandela Medical School in KwaZulu-Natal and Glenda Gray of the Chris Hani Baragwanath paediatric unit in Gauteng, as well as Cape Town HIV/AIDS specialists Robin Wood of Somerset Hospital, and Eric Goemaere, who set up the Médecins sans Frontiéres HIV/AIDS treatment clinics in Khayelitsha.
The company emerged after a meeting between the HIV/AIDS specialists and the Nelson last November, Garpp managing director Wilbert Bannenberg said.
Abdool Karrim said the aim was to bring together all the anti-retroviral treatment initiatives across South Africa under a single umbrella. The group sets minimum standards for anti-retroviral treatment, but is not an exclusive body.
Far from planning to do any "drugs smuggling", the group intends working entirely within the law, although its early efforts have been hamstrung by what the members call "foot-dragging" by the Medicines Control Council.
The formation of the company was a response to "the crisis in access to affordable anti-retroviral drugs in South Africa". It aimed to improve access "through the promotion of generic drugs of good quality, and at the lowest price".
The TAC's Colwyn Poole said about 600 000 South Africans were ready to start treatment with anti-retrovirals, but only about 1 500 people in the state sector were receiving treatment. About 20 000 people in the private sector were on anti-retrovirals.
The projects in which the nearly 1 500 state patients were being treated had the capacity to treat 2 700 more and needed to be rapidly upscaled, he said.
Pointing to such countries as Uganda and Nigeria, which are treating 10 000 and 15 000 state patients respectively with anti-retrovirals, Poole suggested South Africa seek African advice. Bannenberg said the new Section 21 company would buy generic anti-retrovirals registered by the MCC to supply to its member groups. Pointing to various combination of anti-AIDS drugs, he said the AZT, 3TC and Nevirapine combination could be bought through Garpp for R300 a month. The d4T, 3TC and nevirapine combo would cost patients R200. |
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