The Hindu Business Line : `Make anti-AIDS drugs available to local people at concession'

INDIAN drug majors have a moral responsibility to make anti-AIDS medicines available in the country at a special concession, with or without sops from the Government, says Dr Suman Mehta, UNAIDS Director for Asia-Pacific, Middle East and North Africa.

"Indian companies have been manufacturing low-cost drugs and supplying them globally, it now needs to make a concession for its own people," she told Business Line. If the private sector does its bit, pressure can be built on the Government to rise to the occasion. But the Government too should hear out the drug companies and see how they can be encouraged to extend themselves, she added.

She was speaking against the backdrop of a recent World Health Organisation (WHO) statement on the progress made worldwide on the 3 by 5 target i.e., to cover a population of three million people living with HIV/AIDS by 2005. By end-2004, about 7,00 000 people living with AIDS in developing countries were receiving antiretroviral treatment, thanks to government and private partnerships, the WHO note said.

The performance of different countries is variable, she said and added that some Latin American countries had improved its access to AIDS drugs. In Asia, the prevalence of AIDS is less than the African countries, for instance, where prevalence is at about 25-30 per cent of its population.

India is where South Africa was about 10 years ago, showing a prevalence of less than one per cent of the population. This prevalence shot up to 25 per cent in South Africa subsequently.

"India is at a cross-road and how it responds to this time-bomb will affect the whole world. The real challenge is in channelling the financial resources coming into the country ... to make the money work. There is more money coming into the country than there was three years ago and India has put its anti-AIDS programme on a fast-track. But the country should not depend on foreign aid and should look at domestic allocations too," she said.

She was critical of the private sector and their lack of involvement with HIV/AIDS prevention measures.

"There are some business houses such as the Tatas or BEST (Mumbai's transport and electricity company) which have programmes for its employees. But other companies need to do similar initiatives for employees and this in turn has to filter out into the society around them," she said.

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