• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Our Bureau

New Delhi , Nov. 30

THE significance of a day dedicated to AIDS may not be of much relevance to Kerala's five-year old Bency and eight-year old Benson - children living with HIV/AIDS — who have already been exposed to the stigma and discrimination associated with the illness.

However, these children and other stake-holders present here today bore witness to an announcement from the Union Health Minister, Ms Sushma Swaraj, — on the eve of World AIDS Day — on the Centre's commitment to provide anti-AIDS drugs at reduced prices to Government-run programmes in the country.

The exercise is expected to cost an estimated Rs 200 crore, to cover about one lakh HIV/AIDS patients of the total estimated 4.58 million people living with the illness. She hoped that the programme would kick-in by April 1, 2004 covering six high prevalent States — Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland.

,

While the final price of drugs was not yet finalised, Ms Swaraj however said that the companies were willing to bring the prices lower than that offered to the Clinton Foundation recently. "They have sought the same incentives that are given to exports. It will be a pre-budget exercise and we will ask the Finance Minister for budgetary support to help this initiative take-off," she told presspersons.

The Clinton Foundation deal procured anti-AIDS drugs or anti-retrovirals (ARVs) from Indian drug companies — Cipla, Ranbaxy, Matrix and now Hetero too — to supply ARVs to African nations at about $140 (about Rs 6,419) per patient per annum. This cost a patient about 38 cents per day as opposed to $ 1 per day.

Ms Meenakshi Datta Ghosh, Project Director, National AIDS Control Organsiation said, "quotations have been received from the industry at prices lower than prices that offered to the Clinton Foundation." Industry representatives at the forum said that ARV prices could be reduced by 5-10 per cent if the Government would waive excise on the several active pharmaceutical ingredients used in making ARVs. Further, he pointed out, some of the ingredients were imported and needed relief in customs tariff.

Meanwhile, Ms Swaraj said that the Confederation of Indian Industry had offered to help procure about 150 CD4/CD8 count machines, used to monitor the viral load among people with the illness.

Further, she added that the Government would commence a pilot project in Bellary in Karnataka to make it AIDS-free in five years. Also on the anvil is a draft legislation to deal with HIV/AIDS related stigma and human-rights issues, to be introduced in the Budget session.

Responding to a query on whether funds promised to India in support of anti-AIDS programmes reached the grassroots, Ms Ghosh said that the fund-related programmes were yet to be phased in.

Mr Ashok Alexander of the Gates Foundation added that $67.5 million (about Rs 309.4 crore), of the $100 million (approximately Rs 458.5 crore) announced by Bill Gates in India, had already been sanctioned. The amount has been scaled up to $200 million (about Rs 917 crore) and this would be disbursed by the first quarter of the current fiscal, he added.

Star support

Amitabh Bachchan, along with other Bollywood stars including Shahrukh Khan, Tabu and Preity Zinta will feature in advertising-spots to help dispel the stigma associated with AIDS, Ms Ghosh, NACO's chief, told Business Line.

The NACO-supported campaign is already on, with the ad-spot featuring actress Tabu.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
`Rising fiscal deficit major cause for concern' — More needs to be done on reforms front in AP, says study

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line