Report: China Plans to Mass-Produce Four AIDS Drugs

China plans to make four types of low-cost AIDS drugs, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday, citing Health Minister Zhang Wenkang. The news agency did not say which drugs would be made or whether all four would be mass-produced, but it did say the price would be about one-tenth that of imported drugs, which currently cost 30,000 yuan (US$3,600) per person each year. The average annual income per person in China is $700.

In September, the health ministry denied news reports that it was planning to produce AIDS drugs in violation of foreign patents, but said it wants deeper discounts on the prices of imported drugs. China has begun treating patients with a domestically produced version of AZT, for which patents recently expired. China's health ministry says ten more Chinese firms have applied for permission to make generic versions of AIDS drugs with expired patents and might be producing them by the end of the year.

The disease has been spread mostly by sharing needles for injecting drugs and unsanitary blood-buying rings. In these, operators reinjected sellers with pooled blood after removing the plasma, making it possible for one HIV-infected person to pass the virus to dozens of others. The government responded by announcing a ban on the plasma trade and said it is creating standard blood banks for donors.

China spent 2.3 billion yuan (US$272 million) last year to establish and upgrade 459 blood banks, Wenkang said. In addition, China has approved 22 million yuan (US$2.7 million) per year in 2002-2004 in subsidies for treatment in the worst-hit areas. Despite the measures, Zhang said the HIV/AIDS fight could be a "long term, arduous and complicated task."

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