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UNDP says reduction in prices of HIV drugs to put more people on treatment

Xinhua, December 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) said on Tuesday that the reduction in prices of life-saving drugs for people living with HIV will allow more people to start receiving life-prolonging drugs.

In a statement released to mark the commemoration of the World AIDS Day emailed to Xinhua, the UNDP said the price of HIV and AIDS drugs have been reducing over the years, resulting in more people being put on treatment.

"Back in 2000, HIV and AIDS medicines cost over 10,000 U.S. dollars per patient per year. Within a year, this prohibitive price plummeted when generic manufacturers began to offer treatment for 350 dollars per year. Since then, and thanks to healthy competition among quality-assured generic manufacturers, the price continued to fall to around 150 dollars per patient per year," the statement released by the UNDP office in Lusaka, the Zambian capital, said.

According to the statement, the dramatic price reductions have made it possible to provide HIV and AIDS treatment to 15.8 million people, up from a mere 700,000 people 15 years ago.

The statement added that the UNDP, as a temporary principle recipient for the Global Fund, has contributed to the expansion of the coverage of care and treatment in Zambia, adding that since 2011 UNDP's involvement in programs addressing AIDS, TB and malaria has delivered between 85 million dollars to 90 million dollars a year.

The UNDP has also supported Zambia to design applications for the Global Fund new funding model leading to the signing of a 240 million dollar grant this year to implement HIV/TB and malaria programs from 2015 to 2017.

With this funding, Zambia will expand availability of anti-retroviral medication for people living with both HIV and TB from 84 percent in 2014 to a target of 90 percent by 2017.

The UNDP currently supports the implementation of HIV grants financed by the Global Fund in 19 countries.

Zambia has about 1,200,000 people living with the HIV virus and about 500,000 are not on treatment, according to the National AIDS Council, a government agency coordinating responses to the fight against the pandemic. Endit