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Big Donors in Global AIDS Fight Agree to Buy Generic Medicines
By Sarah Lueck, the Wall Street Journal
April 6, 2004
WASHINGTON - Large contributors to AIDS-treatment programs in developing countries agreed to buy cheaper generic drugs, stepping into a simmering debate over whether the U.S.'s multibillion-dollar AIDS fund also will buy them.
The Global Fund, the World Bank and Unicef joined the Clinton Foundation in making arrangements with a handful of generic-drug makers to buy medications for at least half the price of brand-name products. The Clinton Foundation, headed by former President Clinton, reached price agreements last fall.
The Bush administration hasn't decided whether it, too, should buy the generic drugs, most of which are made without the permission of patent holders. Makers of brand-name AIDS drugs have opposed use of the generics.
The agreements cover individual drugs and combination AIDS treatments made by Cipla Ltd., Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., Hetero Drugs Ltd. and Matrix Laboratories, all of India, and South Africa-based Aspen Pharmacare Holdings. Pills made by Cipla and Ranbaxy combine three AIDS medicines into one, slashing the cost to about one-fourth of what the individual medicines would cost and making them easier to take.
Agreements also were made to buy AIDS diagnostic tests for as much as 80% less than their market prices from Beckman Coulter Inc., Becton Dickinson & Co., Bayer AG's Bayer Diagnostics, bioMérieux SA and Roche Diagnostics, a unit of Roche Holding AG. Ira Magaziner, chairman of the Clinton Foundation AIDS Initiative, called the agreements a "crucial first step" in getting the medications out to more patients, a process that could take months or years, depending on the country where the medicines are distributed.
He said the Clinton Foundation is "not looking to criticize the U.S. government."
The products covered by the agreements have been "prequalified" by the World Health Organization. But U.S. officials, saying the WHO isn't a regulatory body, met with international regulatory officials to set uniform standards to evaluate drug safety and quality. No final decisions were made, according to people who attended the meeting. But U.S. officials have raised concerns that the generic products might not be safe or might contribute to increased drug resistance.
A former Clinton official last week urged the Bush administration to back the generic drugs. "Everyone except the U.S. seems to think they work already," said Richard Holbrooke, former ambassador to the United Nations, at an AIDS forum in Washington.
If the U.S. decides against buying generic drugs, it "will become a symbol of the feeling that the U.S. is working for Big Pharma," said Mr. Holbrooke, chairman and chief executive of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, a group of about 140 companies, including drug makers.
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