Anglo Balks at HIV Drug Costs in South Africa

The London-based mining firm Anglo American (AA) announced on Monday that it cannot afford to supply antiretroviral drugs to all its workers infected with HIV/AIDS. Dr. Brian Brink, AA's senior vice president-medical, said its 14,000 senior staff would receive antiretroviral treatment as part of their medical insurance, but that the provision of drug treatment for lower income employees was too expensive. About 21 percent of AA's employees in South Africa are HIV-positive. It employs 160,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa, the majority in South Africa, which has one of the world's highest rates of HIV/AIDS.

"The obstacles to providing therapy are huge. The more I look at it, it's not possible," said Brink. Medicines at cost are too expensive; strict adherence to drug protocols is uncertain; and the extent of a company's obligation to treat current workers, ex-employees and dependents is too daunting, Brinks said. "It could save on absenteeism and improved productivity. The saving you achieve can be substantial, but we really don't know how it will stack up. We feel that the cost will be greater than the saving," he said.

Antiretroviral treatment costs about $162 a month. Over the weekend, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) gave rights to its latest HIV/AIDS drugs to a local generic producer to encourage greater access to treatment. On Monday, GSK was among a number of United Kingdom drug companies that met with British Minister for International Development Clare Short in an effort to negotiate a system that would make a broad range of medicines more affordable to developing countries. The companies say they want safeguards to stop cheap drugs from filtering back into the developed markets.

AA hopes to launch a pilot project with GSK and the London School of Tropical Medicine before the end of the year. But for wider distribution of drugs to employees and dependents, AA said it would have to seek additional funding from international donor agencies.

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