Thai Government to Make Own, Cheaper AIDS Drugs By End of Year

Thailand's state pharmaceutical enterprise, the Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO), announced on Friday that by the end of next year, it plans to manufacture most of the drugs commonly used to treat people with HIV. This will cut the cost of treatment in half, said Thongchai Tavichachart, director of the organization. As a result, the average price of a month's supply of HIV/AIDS drugs will drop to $51 per person from $92.50 at present. In the next three to four months, the GPO will have the capacity to produce enough drugs used in AIDS cocktails, such as AZT and Nevirapine, to serve the needs of 50,000 patients. Within a year, it should be able to supply at least 100,000 patients.

The official number of HIV-infected persons in Thailand is 500,000, although other estimates are twice as high. About 200,000 patients are undergoing drug therapy, said Tavichachart. In January, to make medicines more affordable, Thailand changed drug registration regulations in a way that gave high-priced foreign products competition from locally produced generic versions. Tavichachart said the GPO has invested about $445,000 in improving its AIDS drug manufacturing capacity. The enterprise currently manufactures a small amount of the drugs on a trial basis.

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