:::The Desi Flavor:::

India to market female condoms

The Tamil Nadu central government, in collaboration with the Hindustan Latex and the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) began a nationwide initiative in October to provide female condoms at just Rs.3 to NGOs working with female sex workers.

“It is for the first time that a government (the Tamil Nadu government) is supporting such a pilot project,” TANSACS project director Supriya Sahu told IANS.

“We are looking at the reproductive rights of women directly. Most women do not have this right to choose. This is a HIV-AIDS prevention tool under a woman’s control,” she said. “For the first time, a woman will have a preventive tool in her own hand.”

“We will monitor and make public our findings on acceptability, usage and efficacy by April in a report,” said Sahu. TANSACS will also reach female condoms to another 800,000 women through self-help groups, she added.

Study shows Indian AIDS drug is a winner

Drug cocktail made and marketed by Indian pharma companies such as Ranbaxy and Cipla has proven to be more effective than any other drugs:

A three-year study of AIDS drugs has identified what the research leaders believe is the ideal triple-therapy cocktail for new patients.

The successful cocktail, known colloquially as "two nukes plus a non-nuke," is the same one that the World Health Organization has been recommending in poor countries since 2002. It is also the same combination that Indian suppliers of generic drugs have been putting in three-in-one pills since 2001.

Another drug cocktail examined in the study — a "three-nuke combination" — did so poorly that patients were taken off it. The failed cocktail is the only one made as a three-in-one pill by any Western pharmaceutical company.

Click here for the rest of the piece. This is good news for India since AIDS has been identified as one of the most deadliest disease confronting the country in recent times. The availability of cheap drugs is a good first step.

Kaisernetwork on AIDS/HIV Epidemic

Jay Gohil

Kaisernetwork is the best resource I've come across that brings you information on AIDS/HIV Epidemic, World AIDS Day 2003 related events, news stories, access to studies and key facts; links to resources and organizations around the world. Their report on HIV/AIDS in India and video feature is worth checking out. Other related facts and stories can be found at You and AIDS and India's Growing AIDS Problem.

This years World AIDS Day theme is Women and AIDS.

AIDS Prevention and Policy Forum

Jay Gohil

The Council of Foreign Relations hosted a panel on AIDS - Prevention and Policy. Click here for the transcript.

Other related posts:
: Clinton's AIDS Initiative

Free AIDS Therapy?

On the eve of an election day in India, the government announced plans to provide free antiretroviral therapy to H.I.V.-positive new parents and H.I.V.-positive children in the six states most affected by the disease. This is part of a larger initiative spearheaded domestically by Sushma Swaraj, India's Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, and internationally by organizations like the World Health Organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation. Indian government officials are also negotiating with domestic and foreign businesses that provide generic antiretroviral therapy at reduced rates in Africa and the Caribbean to extend their program into India. Indian corporations particularly are being called upon to help stop the AIDS epidemic, which infects at least 4.6 million people in India. The generic drugs, which cost around a dollar a day, carry too high a price tag for many infected Indians, thus the companies and foundations are asking the Indian government to step in to subsidize their production and lower costs

- YaleGlobal

Clinton's AIDS Initiative

Jay Gohil

In October, Bill Clinton brokered with generic drug companies in India and South Africa to provide antiretrovirals at a third of the current cost to people suffering from AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. The cost will be even lower than the current price for generics. It's an extremely promising development. One of the few remotely positive things that came out of the WTO conference in Cancun was a deal permitting poor countries to import generic copies of patented medicines to treat diseases like AIDS. But the WTO deal put so many bureaucratic barriers in the way of countries that wanted to produce generics for export, and there was so much fear of retalition by the United States, which zealously protects its pharmaceutical companies, that it seemed unlikely that many generic drug companies would find the battle worth fighting.

In essence, the Clinton Foundation, with a lot of personal lobbying and finagling by Bill Clinton himself, helped companies in India and South Africa break down some of the barriers. The Wall Street Journal details Clinton's involvement and achievement. Essentially, according to the WSJ, he created a viable market by convincing governments to roll out nation-wide treatment programs (and helping to find funding for those programs) which insured the generic drug companies a large enough number of patients over time to make a small profit. Clinton also got the drug companies to open their books and manufacturing processes to outsiders, who hunted for ways to cut costs.

Dr. Bernard Pécoul of Doctors Without Borders's Access to Essential Medicines Campaign says that because of the Clinton Foundation's actions, "the World Health Organization's objective of reaching 3 million by 2005 becomes much more feasible."

Kaisernet has an essential round-up of just about everything that's been written on the subject.

But of course, there's always a downside. The Wall Street Journal article suggests that patent-holding pharmaceutical companies may try to block the deal. If they do, it will put George Bush in an interesting position. He's exploited the AIDS crisis, putting more money into AIDS prevention and relief (although not as much as he says he put), but arranging the system to benefit drug companies rather than victims of AIDS. He even appointed a former CEO of Eli Lilly, and member of a group that lobbies to protect drug patents, Randall Tobias, to oversee his AIDS plan. If he had any concern for suffering people, he'd be thrilled with the Clinton Foundation's achievement, because it would make any money the United States put into AIDS relief go a lot farther. If he does anything to back the drug companies in this case, it will be pretty obvious that he asked American taxpayers to pay for nothing but relief of the suffering pharmaceutical companies.