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P.T. Jyothi Datta

NEW DELHI, March 7

INDIAN pharma companies may have helped in driving down prices and increasing competition in the anti-AIDS segment in the global arena. But they still have a huge challenge in making their drugs available at home, besides turning out the next-generation of anti-retrovirals or anti-AIDS drugs to beat the emergence of multi-drug resistance in this segment, Professor Richard Feachem, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, told Business Line.

Outlining the role that domestic generic companies such as Cipla and Ranbaxy could play in the national anti-AIDS programme, he said the role of the Global Fund is to buy drugs at a subsidised price from companies and provide them to people who need it. But that would be through a process of Government tender, and the drugs with the lowest price and assured quality would be procured.

Prices have come down over the last two years from about $15,000 per year to $300 and are still falling, he said. "Companies are not losing money. They are still making profits as this is a high-volume, low-profit segment," he said.

Prof Feachem is on his first visit to India as the chief of the Global Fund and he has met with top brass of the Government, corporates and the non-Government segment. "We have a policy of transparency and have had discussions in India with domestic generic companies such as Cipla and Ranbaxy. Our role is to make companies aware that investments are on their way; the real challenge is in the production capacities. There would be a shortfall of drugs if every HIV/AIDS person were provided them. We are constantly in touch with European companies such as Merck and GSK, but don't have a relationship with any one of them."

He admitted that making anti-AIDS drugs randomly available would bring about issues of multi-drug resistance. "This is a major medical and scientific challenge in the HIV, TB and malaria segments. If you withhold the drug, people will die and if your distribute it, at some stage resistance will emerge. The challenge for pharma companies is in minimising the problem or in slowing it down, but it cannot be completely removed. The only solution is in distributing the drugs through reputed centres in a controlled way. "

Only recently the Global Fund had committed $140 million to India, of which $100 million was for AIDS and the rest for TB.

He admitted that there were initial delays after the first round of funding as there was no distribution mechanism in place. But that has been settled and the second and third rounds would flow quickly, he assured.

He pointed out that AIDS is assuming pandemic proportions in India and the country needed to urgently respond to avert a catastrophe. "Funds are beginning to come in, the challenge now is implementation," he said.

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