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Problem is roll-out, not price
News24
2005-01-28

Johannesburg - Generic antiretrovirals are not likely to have any short-term impact on prices, the Treatment Action Campaign's legal representative said on Tuesday.

This followed Aspen Pharmacare's announcement on Tuesday that the company had received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to use certain generic ARVs.Jonathan Berger of the Aids Law Project, who acts for the TAC, said the slow pace of the ARV roll-out campaign was currently a bigger problem than pricing.The FDA approval was not relative to the South African situation and added unnecessary complications.

Any programme funded by the US President's emergency plan for Aids relief (Pepfar) had to have FDA approval. The US would not provide funding for drugs not approved by the FDA, he said.According to Berger, this would only improve access when countries without their own medicines control councils relied on FDA approval.Aspen's cost-effectiveness will however make Pepfar's money go further.Berger does not dispute the need for cheaper ARVs.Most people cannot afford the treatment and there are currently about 500 000 South Africans who should be on the medication.

Of these, there are only 20 000 people receiving ARV treatment in the public sector and about 45 000 through the private sector, Berger said.

(Source: News24, January 26, 2005).

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