Thailand Launches "World's Cheapest" AIDS Drug
Fri Mar 22,10:55 AM ET
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand plans to launch what it says is the world's cheapest anti-AIDS (news - web sites) drug cocktail next month, health officials said on Friday.
The first batch of 120,000 tablets of GPO-VIR, produced by the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO), will be made available at state hospitals and drugstores in April at a cost of 20 baht ($0.46) a tablet, the health ministry said in a statement.
"This is the cheapest anti-retroviral pill in the world, which will help them treat HIV (news - web sites)/AIDS patients more effectively since they won't need to take three pills at a time," GPO Director Thongchai Tavichachart told Reuters.
The drug is a combination of three anti-retroviral drugs--Stavudine 30-40 mg, Lamivudine 150 mg and Nevirapine 200 mg--that are usually prescribed separately to patients.
Around 30% of Thailand's 695,000 HIV/AIDS sufferers take anti-retroviral drugs regularly and the new single pill will cut their monthly medicine cost by half to 1,200 baht.
Thai AIDS patients normally pay about 2,400 baht a month for their doses of the three drugs, which were already produced locally. Thongchai said imported versions cost Thais about 10,000 baht a month.
After six months of initial production, the GPO plans to expand its monthly capacity to three million tablets a month, and six million tablets a month within a year. |
