Thailand to launch dollar-a-day anti-AIDS cocktail

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Thailand to launch dollar-a-day anti-AIDS cocktail

Agence France-Presse - March 22, 2002

BANGKOK, March 22 (AFP) - Thai health authorities said Friday they

will begin selling the world's cheapest anti-AIDS drug early next

month for less than a dollar a day, in a move applauded by activists.

The Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) is behind the first

locally produced anti-retroviral (ARV) " cocktail " which could end up

helping hundreds of thousands of HIV sufferers battle the virus which

causes AIDS.

The drug, called GPO-VIR, is a single pill combining Stavudine,

Lamivudine and Nevirapine, which are known to inhibit the production

of HIV in the body.

GPO director Thongchai Thavichachart told AFP his organisation

produced a successful initial batch of 120,000 tablets of the drug on

March 18 and will first market it at six GPO outlets in early April.

" We will sell it for 20 baht (46 US cents) per tablet, which is very

cheap, " he said.

The dosage is set at two tablets per day, making the 1,200 baht (27

dollars) monthly cost the cheapest in the world, Thailand's public

health ministry said.

It would also slash Thailand's current lowest monthly cost of 2,500

baht for ARVs by more than half.

The GPO aims to increase production to three million tablets per month

over the next six months to meet demand, Thongchai said.

He noted the GPO has successfully prescribed cocktails of the three

separate drugs for three years to more than 2,000 AIDS patients.

GPO, Bangkok's Mahidol University and the Department of Medical

Science in the health ministry are to submit a proposal for GPO-VIR

testing on up to 16,000 HIV-AIDS patients, he said.

International group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without

Borders -MSF) welcomed GPO-VIR's launch and said it was considering

buying the drugs for use internationally.

" We have used GPO drugs on hundreds of patients in Thailand and we

have no reason to believe there is any problem with the quality of

GPO-VIR, " said the Thailand director of MSF-France Yorgos Kapranis.

" Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia that is producing

affordable generic drugs for AIDS patients, " he added.

Thai AIDS activists also voiced their approval.

" This launching of the cocktail pill is a benefit on personal and

national levels, " said Nimit Tien-udom, director of the AIDS Access

Foundation.

A previous Thai concoction touted as a " miracle cure " for AIDS, V-1

Immunitor, was distributed last year to thousands of HIV patients in

Thailand before it was declared ineffective by the ministry of health.

Distribution of V-1 Immunitor touched off a storm of controversy among

AIDS activists and health officials.

Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said in a statement the

success of GPO-VIR could reduce expenses for some 695,000 Thai HIV-

AIDS patients, some of whom have been paying up to 20,000 baht (460

dollars) monthly for drugs.

An estimated one million of Thailand's 60 million people have been

infected with HIV, and one third of those have already died.

More than 180,000 Thais contracted HIV last year and some 68,000

developed full-blown AIDS, according to the health ministry's AIDS

division.

Thailand's vocal AIDS activists have long pressed the government for

anti-retroviral drugs and HIV treatment to be included in a public

health care scheme which allows patients to pay just 30 baht per

hospital visit.

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