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Courtesy Indian drugs, hope floats for HIV+
Low-cost anti-retroviral drugs treat 86% patients globally,
says UNAIDS chief
Aditi Tandon/TNS

New Delhi, July 4
India’s fundamental role in the global response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic came to the fore today with the UNAIDS chief giving the country’s robust pharmaceutical sector credit for improved global survival rates and treatment possibilities by meeting bulk of the global drug demand at phenomenally low costs. India exports drugs to 200 countries.

“Almost 6.6 million people living with HIV are on treatment today because India has produced high quality and low-cost generic drugs. Over 86 per cent of the positive people are accessing treatment globally because of India,” Michel Sidibe, Executive Director, UNAIDS, said.

He was speaking at the National Convention of parliamentarians, legislators, Zila Parishad chairpersons and mayors, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi attended to reiterate the country’s political commitment to reverse the epidemic. India currently has 24 lakh persons living with HIV.

Sidibe, who is in India close on the heels of the UN high level meet on HIV/AIDS where world leaders committed themselves to “zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero deaths due to AIDS” in June, went on to say that the world would not be able to realise its shared vision of zero infections without India’s leadership. “India’s role is critical; without its leadership, we can’t achieve the goal we have committed ourselves to,” he said. Elaborating on the impact of Indian drugs, Sidibe, who hails from Africa (which bears the highest burden of AIDS), said Africa had reduced new HIV infections by 33 per cent over the past decade and posted a 12-fold increase in persons living with HIV.

“This has happened because India made available cheap anti- retroviral drugs,” he said. Considering that 96 per cent HIV treatment cost around the world is met from donations outside of those countries, Sidibe has urged India not to buckle under pressure from developed countries that want to use TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) to patent HIV drugs, thus pushing up costs.

“India has to resist attempts of TRIPS being used to block its ability to produce cheap drugs that are saving people’s lives,” said the UNAIDS chief, triggering strong responses from Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.