<span id="midArticle_start"/><span id="midArticle_0"/> India has scrapped customsimport duties for drugs and test kits used to treat AIDS in aneffort to cut prices across the country, as it struggles to copewith an ongoing shortage in its national program to fight thedisease.
<span id="midArticle_1"/>More than a third of India's 2.1 million HIV/AIDS patientsdepend on getting their daily antiretrovirals for free fromstate-run distribution centres, but many of them have beenfacing shortages or stock outs for months.
<span id="midArticle_2"/>The notice put out by the Central Board of Excise andCustoms this week intends to make it cheaper to import rawmaterials that are used to make antiretrovirals under thenational program, BB Rewari of the National AIDS ControlOrganisation (NACO) told Reuters.
<span id="midArticle_3"/>Currently, U.S. firm Mylan Inc and India's AurobindoPharma supply AIDS drugs to the government program.
<span id="midArticle_4"/> <span class="first-article-divide"/>The exemption applies to certain first-line and second-lineantiretroviral drugs used to treat adults and children, as wellas to certain diagnostic kits and equipment that are used byNACO, Rewari said.
<span id="midArticle_5"/>He added the drugs under exemption make up roughly 95percent of the antiretrovirals used by India's AIDS patientsunder the national program.
<span id="midArticle_6"/> <span class="second-article-divide"/>The exemption, which will remain in effect until March 2016,is the national AIDS control department's latest effort to dealwith a chronic shortage of HIV/AIDS drugs at home, even thoughIndian companies are some of the world's major suppliers of AIDSdrugs. Local firm Cipla Ltd made headlines in 2001 bymaking antiretrovirals for Africa for under $1 a day.
<span id="midArticle_7"/>The AIDS control program has been in disarray for monthsafter the government changed the way over $1.3 billion infederal funds were distributed, according to data and lettersseen by Reuters.
<span id="midArticle_8"/> <span class="third-article-divide"/>Construction of clinics in rural areas has been delayed andmany health workers have quit.
<span id="midArticle_9"/>Government officials have previously told Reuters of a lackof participation by local drugmakers in the tenders floated bythe National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) to procure drugs.
<span id="midArticle_10"/>Industry insiders, meanwhile, cite delayed tender approvals,supply bottlenecks and late payments, as well as poorcoordination between the central and state governments.
<span id="midArticle_11"/>AIDS drugs sold on the open market are expensive, so in aneffort to make those more affordable, the government is likelyto add more AIDS drugs under price control by including them inthe national list of essential medicines, people involved in theprocess told Reuters in April. (Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Mumbai; Editing by Mark Potter)
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<span id="midArticle_1"/>More than a third of India's 2.1 million HIV/AIDS patientsdepend on getting their daily antiretrovirals for free fromstate-run distribution centres, but many of them have beenfacing shortages or stock outs for months.
<span id="midArticle_2"/>The notice put out by the Central Board of Excise andCustoms this week intends to make it cheaper to import rawmaterials that are used to make antiretrovirals under thenational program, BB Rewari of the National AIDS ControlOrganisation (NACO) told Reuters.
<span id="midArticle_3"/>Currently, U.S. firm Mylan Inc and India's AurobindoPharma supply AIDS drugs to the government program.
<span id="midArticle_4"/> <span class="first-article-divide"/>The exemption applies to certain first-line and second-lineantiretroviral drugs used to treat adults and children, as wellas to certain diagnostic kits and equipment that are used byNACO, Rewari said.
<span id="midArticle_5"/>He added the drugs under exemption make up roughly 95percent of the antiretrovirals used by India's AIDS patientsunder the national program.
<span id="midArticle_6"/> <span class="second-article-divide"/>The exemption, which will remain in effect until March 2016,is the national AIDS control department's latest effort to dealwith a chronic shortage of HIV/AIDS drugs at home, even thoughIndian companies are some of the world's major suppliers of AIDSdrugs. Local firm Cipla Ltd made headlines in 2001 bymaking antiretrovirals for Africa for under $1 a day.
<span id="midArticle_7"/>The AIDS control program has been in disarray for monthsafter the government changed the way over $1.3 billion infederal funds were distributed, according to data and lettersseen by Reuters.
<span id="midArticle_8"/> <span class="third-article-divide"/>Construction of clinics in rural areas has been delayed andmany health workers have quit.
<span id="midArticle_9"/>Government officials have previously told Reuters of a lackof participation by local drugmakers in the tenders floated bythe National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) to procure drugs.
<span id="midArticle_10"/>Industry insiders, meanwhile, cite delayed tender approvals,supply bottlenecks and late payments, as well as poorcoordination between the central and state governments.
<span id="midArticle_11"/>AIDS drugs sold on the open market are expensive, so in aneffort to make those more affordable, the government is likelyto add more AIDS drugs under price control by including them inthe national list of essential medicines, people involved in theprocess told Reuters in April. (Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Mumbai; Editing by Mark Potter)
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