Indonesia: Protesters Seek Cheaper Drugs at HIV/AIDS Meeting

Protesters demanding access to cheaper hepatitis C drugs for co-infected HIV patients disrupted the ninth International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific in Bali on Wednesday. Brandishing a banner proclaiming "Hepatitis C + silence = death," the activists accused drug maker Roche AG of overpricing its pegylated interferon, which costs $1,500 a month. Most co-infected patients are injecting drug users, a population the World Health Organization says is excluded from treatment in many nations due to fears of drug interaction and re-infection. While governments and international health agencies have worked to make HIV/AIDS medications more affordable, the high cost of drugs for hepatitis C continues to limit access to them in most countries.

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