PHA-Exchange> ARV Drug Procurement : Letter to Minister of Health and Family Welfare(INDIA)

[AMTC India]

 ARV Drug Procurement : Letter to Minister of Health and Family Welfare

 

 

9th June 2004

 

To 

Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss

Hon’ble Minster of Health and Family Welfare 

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare 

Nirman Bhavan,

Maulana Azad Road 

New Delhi - 110011

 

Dear Dr. Ramadoss

Sub: ARV Drug Procurement 



The Affordable Medicines and Treatment Campaign (AMTC), is a national campaign aimed at creating an environment that will ensure sustained accessibility and affordability of medicines and treatment for every individual in India. Our mission statement is:



The right to life and health is a fundamental right guaranteed to every person living in India and is non-negotiable. This campaign aims to demand and create an environment that will ensure sustained accessibility and affordability of medicines and treatment for every individual in India, including access to affordable Anti-Retroviral Therapy for persons living with HIV/AIDS. This campaign shall be democratic and participatory. It will seek the mobilization of communities and civil society to make state, national and international agencies and industry accountable for securing health for all.



We are writing this letter to seek your immediate attention and intervention to ensure adequate and sustained supply of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for the free antiretroviral therapy (ART) programme. As you know, on 1st of April of this year Government of India initiated a free ART programme for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) in the six high prevailing states (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Nagaland and Tamil Nadu) and New Delhi. Even though, the first phase of the programme envisaged fifteen delivery points to deliver ARV drugs the present number of delivery points are only seven (one hospital in each state). This inadequate number of delivery points will restrict the number of beneficiaries. We estimate that at this pace the treatment plan will cover only less than 1200 PLHAs in the first phase. This number is minuscule of the PLHA population currently in need of ART in these six high prevalence states. Further, this number is far below the overall target of
 providing treatment to 1,00,000 PLHAs within the first year of the programme.



We understand that the inadequate procurement of drugs is the main reason for the inadequate intake of the ART programme. As you are aware, the programme was launched with limited stock of drugs received from WHO, which is inadequate to meet the demand. We feel that only large-scale procurement of ARV drugs can address this issue. As you know, it is the Indian pharmaceutical companies that supply ARV drugs to majority of African and Latin American countries. Indian companies shook the international pharmaceutical industry and civil society by announcing the supply of ARV drugs for $340 per annum against the then international price of $12000 per annum. These companies went further and are presently supplying ARV drugs for $140 per annum (around Rs 6500). On 9th of April 2004 Clinton Foundation announced an agreement to procure drugs for $140 per annum from six generic manufactures which include 4 Indian companies. However, the paradox is that ARV drugs are still not accessible to
 vast majority of Indian PLHAs. The price of ARV drugs in India is Rs. 14,400 per annum, which is about 120% more than the price at which the Clinton Foundation is procuring. We seek your urgent intervention to end this inequity.



We also have information that the current stock of ARV drugs will be exhausted in July. Any discontinuance in the supply of ARV drugs will have life threatening consequences to those people benefited under the programme. This scenario calls for an urgent intervention from you. 



We learned from the newspapers that the Government initiated negotiations to facilitate procurement of ARV drugs for the free ART programme in the months of December 03 –January 04. We request you to not only restart the negotiations but also expand the mandate of the negotiation to bring down the price of all ARV drugs available in the market. 



Against this background, we request you to take necessary steps to achieve the following 




   To ensure the immediate procurement of ARV drugs before the exhaustion of current stock under free ART programme



   To scale up the procurement of ARV drugs to meet the needs of those PLHAs who require immediate treatment



   To engage with the Indian pharmaceutical companies to bring down the price below $140 per annum to increase the accessibility of ARV drugs.





Expecting a positive response



For AMTC

 

 

 

Anand Grover 

Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit, Mumbai

 

 

 

 

 

On behalf of AMTC 

Mr. Ashok Rau 

Freedom Foundation, Bangalore 



 

Dr. Jayasree

FIRM, Trivandrum

Cc

   Hon’ble Prime Minister of India 
   Hon’ble Minister of Chemical and Fertilisers
   Hon’ble Minister of Finance
   The Project Director, National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO)

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