Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
The New
York Times
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May 15, 2000, Monday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Page 18; Column
1; Editorial Desk
LENGTH: 373 words
HEADLINE: Cheaper Drugs to Combat AIDS
BODY:
With the development of life-prolonging
AIDS drugs in recent years, the high cost of treatment has
become a source of legitimate complaint in developing nations. In the poorest
regions of the world, where AIDS has hit hardest, effective
treatment is all but unaffordable. So there is reason to welcome last week's
announcement that five of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies have
offered to slash the price of AIDS drugs in poor countries. In
an agreement with the United Nations, the companies pledged to sell their drugs
for as much as 90 percent below the prices Americans pay.
By the end of
1999, more than 33 million people worldwide were living with H.I.V., the virus
that causes AIDS. Ninety-five percent of them were in the
developing world, including 23 million in sub-Saharan Africa.
Yet in most of these countries, treatment of the disease is negligible.
Cheaper drugs by themselves will likely have little immediate impact.
There are still far too few doctors and nurses in these regions, and health care
facilities are hopelessly inadequate. The powerful drug cocktails that can
prolong life cost as much as $15,000 a year for a single American patient. Even
reducing prices by 90 percent would leave the drugs unaffordable for most
Africans.
But drastically cut prices can encourage doctors and health
care officials in poor countries to learn how to use these drugs and to develop
the clinics needed to deliver them and monitor their use. Lower prices also may
serve as an incentive for people to get tested for the virus and to seek care.
The U.N. estimates that 90 percent of those living with H.I.V. are unaware of
their infection.
The drug companies' announcement came a day after the
Clinton administration issued a long-overdue executive order saying the United
States would not interfere with African countries that violate American patent
law to provide AIDS drugs more cheaply, either by licensing
local companies to produce generic versions or by importing lower-cost drugs.
Resources and political will in many afflicted nations are still inadequate to
the urgent needs of prevention, education and health care development. But the
price decision by the drug companies is cause for hope.
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LOAD-DATE: May 15, 2000
