HEALTH-JAMAICA: AIDS Drug Concessions Deemed Insufficient

By Zadie Neufville Reprint | | Print |

Zadie Neufville

KINGSTON, Feb 23 2002 (IPS) - AIDS drugs remain beyond the reach of most Jamaicans who need them despite discounts of up to 90 percent offered by major pharmaceuticals companies, say health activists here.

Four major drug makers also have agreed to provide free anti- retroviral medication for HIV-positive expectant mothers.

This “opens another window of opportunity for people with the virus,” says Ian McKnight of Jamaica AIDS Support (JAS). He cautions, however, that while the price reductions are significant, most Jamaicans are still unable to afford the drugs.

Health Minister John Junor announced Wednesday that the four companies – British-based GlaxoSmithKline; Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim, and the U.S.-based Merck Sharp & Dohme and Bristol Myers Squibb – are offering Jamaica price cuts on anti-retrovirals of between 56 and 90 percent.

Anti-retrovirals prolong the lives of those who are infected with the human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).

Health officials say hundreds of lives will be saved. According to current estimates, 20 percent of the 20,000 Jamaicans living with HIV are in need of anti-retroviral drugs. More than 60 percent of the 5,545 Jamaicans with AIDS have already died from the disease, mostly because they cannot afford the drugs.

The minimum wage here is 150 dollars per month. Under terms agreed with the government, Boehringer Ingelheim will sell Viramine, a drug used to reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission of the virus, at a 56 percent discount, knocking the price down from 770 dollars per year to 432 dollars per year. It also will provide the drug free to HIV-positive pregnant mothers in government hospitals.

About 500 mothers a year are expected to benefit from the Boehringer Ingelheim’s commitment to provide the drug free of cost to HIV positive pregnant mothers in government hospitals. Between 15 and 20 of every 1,000 pregnant women tested here are HIV- positive.

Bristol Myers Squibb will reduce the price of its anti-retroviral drugs Zerit and Videx by 90 percent. This means patients will pay 270 dollars and 310 dollars, respectively, per year.

GlaxoSmithKline has offered to reduce the price of Combivir, Retrovir and Epivir for both government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to 720 dollars, from 4,000 dollars.

Merck Sharp & Dohme will cut by 85 percent the price of CRIXIVAN, or Idanavir, and STOCTRIN, also known as Efavirenz, offering them to private and public institutions at 600 dollars and 500 dollars, respectively.

The company says its policy is to offer non-profit rates to developing countries with HIV/AIDS prevalence rates above one percent.

Negotiations with the big four began last June as part of a Caribbean effort to secure affordable drugs for the region’s HIV/AIDS patients.

Two months ago, Jamaican manufacturer Lascelles Chin became the first to offer cheaper anti-retrovirals. Chin announced that his company, LASCO, would make the drugs available at a price 80 percent cheaper than any available brands, but the company was only able to offer at the reduced price one drug from the ‘cocktail’ of pharmaceuticals that constitute anti-retroviral care. The Indian firm Cipla Limited produces the Lasco-marketed drugs.

Health officials had hoped to reduce the price of the anti- retroviral cocktail from 1,300 dollars per month to between 750 and 2,000 dollars a year because at current prices, according to Junor, only about five percent of the people who need the drugs are able to afford them.

It is a Jamaican government policy to provide medication free of cost to people who can’t afford them, but National AIDS Committee’s (NAC) Verity Rushton says this has not been the case for people with HIV/AIDS.

“The government has not been able to afford the cost of the anti- retrovirals so it is not available for those who need it. Now they are getting the free medicine for the mothers at least some people will have access,” she says.

Even with the reduced prices government cannot afford the cost of HIV/AIDS care. Says Junor: “If we provide care for 100 persons over a five-year period that would be