The Union Health Ministry would expand the scope of the free AIDS drug programme announced by the previous government soon. The government is all set to make free ART programme for people living with HIV / AIDS extended to 25 centres in the country from the eight centres where it is being carried out now.
Replying to a query from pharmabiz, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare said that the government intends to treat 1,00,000 HIV patients in a span of five years in the country. He also pointed out that the project has received financial support from the World Bank. "The free treatment facilities for AIDS patients would be extended to 25 medical institutions within three months", he added.
The previous government had on April 1, 2004 announced the free ART programme for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Nagaland and Tamil Nadu and New Delhi. Prevalence of the disease was the criterion for the selection of states for the programme.
It should be noted that Mumbai-based Affordable Medicines and Treatment Campaign (AMTC), had recently written to Dr. Ramadoss to ensure adequate and sustained supply of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for the free antiretroviral therapy (ART) programme.
The NGO had wanted the government to ensure immediate procurement of ARV drugs before the exhaustion of current stock under free ART programme. It also called for scaling up the procurement of ARV drugs and to initiate talks with domestic pharmaceutical companies to bring down the price below $140 per annum to increase the accessibility of ARV drugs.
Though the government's initial plan was to have 15 delivery points to deliver ARV drugs in the first phase, the present number of delivery points is only eight. The NGO had pointed out that the inadequate number of delivery points would restrict the number of beneficiaries.
According to them, the inadequate procurement of drugs was the main reason for the inadequate intake of the ART programme. "The programme was launched with limited stock of drugs received from the WHO, which is inadequate to meet the demand. We feel that only large-scale procurement of ARV drugs can address this issue. It is the Indian pharmaceutical companies that supply ARV drugs to majority of African and Latin American countries. However, the ARV drugs are still not accessible to vast majority of Indian PLHAs. The price of ARV drugs in India is Rs 14,400 per annum, which is about 120 per cent more than the price at which the Clinton Foundation is procuring. We seek your urgent intervention to end this inequity," they stated.
The minister said that he would be looking into the procurement aspects and would study the role of Indian pharmaceutical companies in ensuring adequate supply of drugs for the programme.