15 July 2009
The price of new HIV medicines for the world’s poorest need to be reduced urgently according to a report by MPs published today, following a five month enquiry.
The report, called The Treatment Timebomb, describes how by 2030 over 50 million people will need HIV treatment compared to just 9 million who need it today.
In addition, millions of those needing treatment in future will need more expensive medicines, having become resistant to the basic HIV combination therapy. These ‘second-line’ treatments currently cost at least seven times more. When the basic treatment stops working, getting them is a matter of life or death.
Some people will also need to switch from the basic combination to newer less-toxic drugs because they experience serious side effects.
International Development Minister Mike Foster said:
“The simple fact is that the HIV epidemic continues to outstrip our best efforts. Five people are infected with HIV every minute and for every two people put on treatment, there are 5 people newly infected with HIV.
This important report reminds us that while it is absolutely vital that we work to reduce the human cost of HIV by focusing our efforts on preventing new infections, we must also face up to the stark reality of the treatment challenge we face.
The pharmaceutical industry has an opportunity to act now to help prevent future human catastrophe. It is time for them to state their clear commitment to make new HIV medicines affordable to those who need them most, by working with UNITAID to develop a patent pool”
Cutting the price of medicines is possible. Ten years ago the basic HIV treatment cost over $10,000 per person, per year. Today, thanks to generic production, these same medicines are available for just $87 per person enabling 3 million people to be treated across the world.
The report argues that to avoid a treatment crisis these kind of price reductions need to happen again with the newer HIV medicines. It urges pharmaceutical companies to cooperate by allowing generic manufacturers to produce their HIV medicines cheaply, specifically for developing countries. It asks them to put their patents into a ‘patent pool’ for this purpose. Over 100 MPs have also signed a motion asking companies to do this, but so far no company has agreed to do so.
The ‘patent pool’ would also allow researchers to work on making HIV medicines suited to the developing world. Currently many HIV medicines are designed for a developed country market and do not consider issues such as what happens when a patient needs to take HIV medicines and TB medicines at the same time. There are also not many special HIV drugs for children, because hardly any children in the developed world have HIV.
The video below from the Stop AIDS Campaign explains the benefits of the 'patent pool':
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