Global initiatives and Public Private Partnerships
HIV drug policies and south markets: settling controversies
Fairly pricing antiretroviral drugs
Authors:
D. Dionisio; C. Fabbri; D. Messeri
Publisher:
Future Medicine, 2009
Despite progress, antiretroviral therapy coverage in low- and middle-income countries remains poor: only 31% of HIV-infected people in need were receiving treatment in 2007. Obstacles include weak health care systems, a critical shortage of human resources and a lack of sustainable, long-term funding considering that health spending is still less than US$10 per person per year in most African countries. These obstacles act as key barriers in preventing poor people from obtaining life-saving drugs.
This article in Future Medicine explores an attuned model to allow the brand and generic manufacturers to appropriately tackle evolutionary trends in the emerging markets, while securing the poorest expanded access to fairly priced antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), either for the present or the future.
The potential of the model is investigated by examining the current brand and generic company roles, the forecasts from government and drug trading directions of India, China, USA, Canada, Brazil and Thailand. In addition the foreseeable implications of multiplying South–South partnerships and the impact of the UNITAID–Clinton Foundation coalition is considered. The authors demonstrate how through a combination of incentives the model aims to reliably provide several opportunities to the brand and generic enterprises, while cutting prices and promoting equitable access to ARVs.
[Adapted from the authors]
