AIDS advocates' "moral
outrage"
over the inaccessibility of antiretroviral drugs should be directed
"not
at greedy drug companies, but at indifferent politicians in both rich
and
developing countries who have failed to come up with the money and
legal
framework" to make HIV/AIDS drugs widely available in developing
nations,
columnist Steven Pearlstein writes in a Washington
Post opinion piece. Although the majority of HIV-positive
individuals
worldwide live in Africa, the cost of antiretroviral drugs and the lack
of a supporting medical infrastructure have prevented access to the
drugs
for most HIV-positive Africans, Pearlstein says. Last year, "[a]fter
getting
beat up pretty badly in the press," pharmaceutical companies that
manufacture
antiretroviral drugs agreed to waive their patent rights to allow the
world's
poorest nations to purchase cheaper, generic versions of the drugs,
Pearlstein
states. However, instead of acting "quickly to seal the deal and move
ahead
with production and distribution," developing nations -- under the
"guise
of rescuing Africans from the scourge of AIDS" -- began to "see the
chance"
to insist that drug firms relinquish the patent rights to all
of their drugs, according to Pearlstein. Although U.S. trade
negotiators rejected the demand, their "offers to compromise by
widening
the circle of exempted drugs and countries have come to naught," he
writes.
Pearlstein concludes, "The trick is to persuade rich countries to
finally
come up with the money and mechanism" to buy antiretroviral drugs for
the
"desperately poor" without "screwing up the economics" of the
pharmaceutical
industry (Pearlstein, Washington Post, 7/4).
Increased
Access
Stopping Development of New Drugs
If incentives are not provided for
pharmaceutical
companies to balance out generic competition and the declining
profitability
of antiretroviral drug development and production, HIV-positive people
will "continue to suffer," Roger Bate, director of Africa
Fighting Malaria, writes in a Washington
Times opinion piece. Although antiretroviral drug prices have
fallen
by more than 90% in developing nations, a lack of trained medical
personnel
and sufficient health infrastructure have prevented widespread access
to
the drugs, Bate says. In addition, the development of new drugs is down
by 33% over the past five years, he states. Smaller companies and those
companies "whose reputations are not currently linked to AIDS research
are quietly slipping away from the field," unwilling to "assum[e] the
risk
of clinical trials without the possibility of an eventual monetary
reward,"
Bate says. While one would expect AIDS advocacy groups to "praise"
companies
still willing to do such research, the groups continue to attack
pharmaceutical
companies, he continues. In addition, while the Bush administration's
plan
to increase access to antiretroviral drugs is "commendabl[e] ... it
seems
to be unaware of the long-term harm of the anti-pharma campaigns," Bate
says. Bate concludes, "It's ironic that activists have scared drug
companies
into action that will harm AIDS patients in the long run. For while
government
and activists can blame capitalism and the drug giants and
profiteering,
the latter acutally ; the former just
talk about
them" (Bate, Washington Times, 7/6).
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