Nigeria is about to begin Africa’s first programme to provide cheap, generic anti-retroviral drugs to HIV and AIDS patients.
The programme is only possible following the South African government’s legal victory over pharmaceutical companies in April 2001, which allowed it to import generic AIDS drugs that are far cheaper than patented treatments. However, South Africa has not yet implemented a programme.
The landmark court case sharply reduced the cost of buying the drugs but some commentators, including drug companies, have said that the major barrier in developing countries is not obtaining the drugs, but distributing them effectively. “The biggest issues are in terms of infrastructure and whether drugs actually get to people,” says a spokesperson for the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.
Nigeria will now be the first to test if its healthcare networks can get the drugs to the patients and support them in taking them in the correct doses for the right length of time.
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Small beginnings
Some health experts believe that such treatment programmes could be effective, if closely monitored. Saul Walker of the National AIDS Trust says: “There’s no reason to believe that, with support and expertise, they couldn’t have effective trials.”
Generic anti-retroviral drugs manufactured in India will be administered at 18 federal health centres in Nigeria. Treatment will then be widened to include 100 centres and up to 100,000 patients over the next few months, according to Nigerian officials. However, this is still a small proportion of an estimated 3.5 million Nigerians living with HIV or AIDS.
Walker adds that the European Union is currently developing a program to provide expertise and financial aid to African countries to develop AIDS treatment programmes.
But he warns that developing strategies for preventing the disease are equally vital: “Treatment and prevention need to go hand in hand.”
Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of HIV and AIDS infection in the world, with 28.1 million of the 40 million people infected worldwide.
