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April 12, 2007
Patents and Drugs in Thailand
Some of the theories around a developing country's ability to produce generic drugs have been put to the test in Thailand in the last couple of months. The country announced it would break patents, and while several drug companies threatened to jack up prices or withhold drugs from the country, Thailand now appears to have the upper hand. I was going to try to summarize the episode, but then the IHT did it for me.
Drug-maker Abbott had earlier cut the price of AIDS drug Kaletra, showing a chink in the armor. More background.
Congress is on both sides of this one. A group of Senate Democrats led by nominal Democrat Joe Lieberman wrote a letter siding with the drug companies. Our old friend James Love deconstructs their position. Another group of Democrats spoke out in favor of Thailand's right to break patents.
Posted by Adam Graham-Silverman at 03:10 AM | Comments (0)
New York Cuts
In the wake of the WHO endorsement of circumcision as an HIV-prevention method, New York City Health Commissioner Tom Frieden announced that they were looking into making the same endorsement, and offering the procedure for free. After subsequent outcry from various corners, perhaps notably the mayor's office, Frieden writes that, actually, they don't have anything in place, have no plans to put anything in place, and really were just maybe speaking hypothetically all along.
Posted by Adam Graham-Silverman at 02:39 AM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2007
States' Rights and Wrongs
The 2007 edition of the AIDS Drug Assistance Program Monitoring Project is out. ADAPs are federal-state programs that provide AIDS drugs to low-income people or those who don't have insurance. Its annual budget is $1.4 billion and it serves 141,856 people.
States' commitments to the program vary. New York's is quite robust, but South Carolina came under heavy fire late last year as several people died while on waiting lists for medication. More than 550 people are on waiting lists now. See how your state measures up.
Posted by Adam Graham-Silverman at 02:31 AM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2007
U.S.-Korea Trade Pact
The United States and South Korea agreed on a new trade arrangement last week. The deal goes to Congress, where it faces some oppositoin from emboldened fair-trade/protectionist Democrats. I didn't see a lot of coverage, much less analysis, but this piece argues that the jury is still out on its effects on the environment and health care. The concern is that it allows for patent protection for big-name drug makers. No generic drugs means higher prices for the public health system. Here is a summary of the deal. More analysis of its prospects.
Elsewhere, Oxfam lauds Democrats for pushing back on these issues in upcoming trade deals.
Drug Pricing Shirttail: The tale of arm-twisting, procedural manipulation and perhaps vote-trading on the Medicare prescription drug bill is pretty well-worn at this point. 60 Minutes got some of the principals on record and lays the blame at the feet of the drug industry.
Posted by Adam Graham-Silverman at 02:51 AM | Comments (0)
Abstinence in Nigeria
New country, old story: A recent paper argues that abstinence education efforts in Nigeria are not proving effective in curbing the spread of HIV. More emphasis, it says, should go toward behavior change programs that encourage people to reduce their number of partners and for injection drug users to use clean needles.
I point this out because it's rare to see this work coming from local scientists, and because it was treated as a local story. A reminder that every country, including those we don't hear about so often, is facing its own challenges with this disease.
Posted by Adam Graham-Silverman at 02:25 AM | Comments (0)
April 01, 2007
Making it Official
The venerated Institute of Medicine has released a report recommending changes to PEPFAR that politicians and advocates have backed for years: Toss the rules that earmark a third of money spent on preventing transmission for abstinence programs. The report also takes PEPFAR to task for requiring that the FDA approve generic drugs already approved by global authorities. Though the FDA has approved many generics, critics argue that buying name-brand drugs at name-brand prices drastically cuts the number of people PEPFAR can treat.
Watch the IOM news conference.
News coverage: John Donnelly in the Boston Globe | The Washington Post | The New York Times
Conveniently, last week Rep. Barbara Lee, a Democratic leader on AIDS issues, reintroduced her bill to strike the abstinence earmark. The idea will probably be rolled into the PEPFAR reauthorization that Congress must get to later this year.
IOM, a branch of the National Academies of Science, keeps archives of its meetings, including agendas and presentations from many of the officials who testified. I attended one back in 2005 and was surprised at the force behind some of the questions, and the candor in some of the responses.
Posted by Adam Graham-Silverman at 10:49 PM | Comments (0)