rships at the Aids Research Institute at the University of California – San Francisco.
Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer for the UK, said DTG is known to fight a growing
problem with HIV/Aids treatments in sub-Saharan Africa – resistance to the disease. Speaking during
a news conference on Thursday, Ms Davies said the drug also produced significantly fewer side
effects for patients, which encouraged continued use of the drug and thus prolonged life.
Dr Mike Reid, a Clinical Fellow at the University of California-San Francisco Hospital said DTG is not a new
drug.
In fact, he uses DTG in his California practise. However, this is the first time the drug will be
made affordable to over 90 lower and middle-income countries.
“DTG is so much more potent than any other drugs used in sub-Saharan Africa,” Mr Reid said. He also said that the drug is good for patients who have never been anti-retroviral drug treatments (ARVs) as well, making it accessible to a larger pool of infected people. While the number of Aids-related deaths have fallen by 42 per cent in eastern and southern Africa since 2010, South African Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi pointed out that his country still has about seven million people living with either HIV or Aids. In 2016, there were 19.4m people in eastern and southern Africa living with HIV, with women and girls making up nearly 60 per cent of that population. These parts of Africa also account for approximately 43 per cent of new HIV infections, or nearly 800,000 new cases in last year . (A drug widely available in the west is finally affordable for African nations ? ) Over a quarter of those were in South Africa.Mr Motsoaledi said the majority of people infected in South Africa are receiving https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/HeartCherry.comhelp from government sources, with only about a quarter million able to afford private care. With the new pricing agreement, combined with the effectiveness of DTG however, he said that the burden on the state is dramatically reduced.Over the next six years, the government will save approximately $900m according to Mr Motsoaledi. “We can now treat more people with the same amount of money,” he said, adding that without the new pricing agreement his government would need an additional $900m to treat an increasing number of infected people by 2022. Lelio Marmora is the Executive Director of Unitaid, a UN global health initiative that works to invest in better prevention and treatments of pandemics like HIV/Aids. He said that one of the biggest problems African leaders who come to his organisation have is “increasing the fiscal space and investments available for health.” Pilot programmes or small public initiatives have been run in the past, but to have a lasting impact on an entire population, programmes will need to reach a wide swathe of people being serviced by the governments. Also, companies like Viiv, Mylan, and Aurobindo cannot reduce prices of drugs, even generic versions of them. If the number of patients cannot be accurately forecast and market conditions in these countries cannot be accurately predicted, Mr Marmora explained. Its new pricing deal announced at the UN is groundbreaking because it serves to address this problem of “scaling up” in sub-Saharan African disease treatment and provides a stable market for the pharmaceutical industry. The “industry is an ally” Mr Marmora said, as he noted there are several successful private-public partnerships in global health.“Access, access, access,” is at the centre of the deal according to Dr Michel Sidibe, Executive Director, UNAIDS. In 2000, South Africa only had about 90,000 people on HIV/Aids treatment. That number is up to four million now according to Mr Sidibe and will likely increase with the pricing agreement.However, that “access” is under threat.
Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer for the UK, said DTG is known to fight a growing
problem with HIV/Aids treatments in sub-Saharan Africa – resistance to the disease. Speaking during
a news conference on Thursday, Ms Davies said the drug also produced significantly fewer side
effects for patients, which encouraged continued use of the drug and thus prolonged life.
Dr Mike Reid, a Clinical Fellow at the University of California-San Francisco Hospital said DTG is not a new
drug.
In fact, he uses DTG in his California practise. However, this is the first time the drug will be
made affordable to over 90 lower and middle-income countries.
“DTG is so much more potent than any other drugs used in sub-Saharan Africa,” Mr Reid said. He also said that the drug is good for patients who have never been anti-retroviral drug treatments (ARVs) as well, making it accessible to a larger pool of infected people. While the number of Aids-related deaths have fallen by 42 per cent in eastern and southern Africa since 2010, South African Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi pointed out that his country still has about seven million people living with either HIV or Aids. In 2016, there were 19.4m people in eastern and southern Africa living with HIV, with women and girls making up nearly 60 per cent of that population. These parts of Africa also account for approximately 43 per cent of new HIV infections, or nearly 800,000 new cases in last year . (A drug widely available in the west is finally affordable for African nations ? ) Over a quarter of those were in South Africa.Mr Motsoaledi said the majority of people infected in South Africa are receiving https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/HeartCherry.comhelp from government sources, with only about a quarter million able to afford private care. With the new pricing agreement, combined with the effectiveness of DTG however, he said that the burden on the state is dramatically reduced.Over the next six years, the government will save approximately $900m according to Mr Motsoaledi. “We can now treat more people with the same amount of money,” he said, adding that without the new pricing agreement his government would need an additional $900m to treat an increasing number of infected people by 2022. Lelio Marmora is the Executive Director of Unitaid, a UN global health initiative that works to invest in better prevention and treatments of pandemics like HIV/Aids. He said that one of the biggest problems African leaders who come to his organisation have is “increasing the fiscal space and investments available for health.” Pilot programmes or small public initiatives have been run in the past, but to have a lasting impact on an entire population, programmes will need to reach a wide swathe of people being serviced by the governments. Also, companies like Viiv, Mylan, and Aurobindo cannot reduce prices of drugs, even generic versions of them. If the number of patients cannot be accurately forecast and market conditions in these countries cannot be accurately predicted, Mr Marmora explained. Its new pricing deal announced at the UN is groundbreaking because it serves to address this problem of “scaling up” in sub-Saharan African disease treatment and provides a stable market for the pharmaceutical industry. The “industry is an ally” Mr Marmora said, as he noted there are several successful private-public partnerships in global health.“Access, access, access,” is at the centre of the deal according to Dr Michel Sidibe, Executive Director, UNAIDS. In 2000, South Africa only had about 90,000 people on HIV/Aids treatment. That number is up to four million now according to Mr Sidibe and will likely increase with the pricing agreement.However, that “access” is under threat.
