Half the world's poor uses generic HIV drugs, U.S. urged to cooperate.

VALLETTA, MALTA -- At a conference on HIV drugs, Hans Hogerzeil, World Health Organization's director of medicine policy and standards, urged the United States to work with the world health body to include more generics in its AIDS treatment programmes, which currently use more expensive branded medicines. Hogerzeil said half of those on AIDS drugs in poor countries were taking generic tablets, most of them made in India.

Worldwide, the number of patients on generic antiretroviral drugs was increasing, he said, The number of people in developing countries receiving treatment at the end of 2004 was 700,000 an increase of 75 percent from the year before but still only a fraction of those in need.

Indian-made products that combine two or three medicines in one pill has brought the cost of first-line AIDS therapy in Africa down to around $140-$400 per patient a year, he estimates. Most brand-name drugs, by contrast, still cost $400-$600, although some are as cheap as generics in certain markets.

Treating children with AIDS in poor countries currently costs $1,000-$1,500, because of an acute shortage of medication specially designed for children. The Indian manufacturers are working on paediatric generics but there are very few available at the moment," Hogerzeil said.