Doctors Without Borders and Brazil Sign Letter of Intent to Export Brazil’s Anti-AIDS Model, Generic Drugs
Doctors Without Borders President Bernard Pecoul and Brazilian Health Minister Jose Serra yesterday signed a letter of intent stating that the not-for-profit group would work with Brazil to export the country's successful anti-AIDS model and its state-produced generic anti-AIDS drugs to other developing countries, Reuters/New York Times reports. Despite having 210,000 AIDS cases, Brazil has limited HIV infection to less than 1% of the population through an "aggressive" prevention program, which also provides free AIDS medications to all HIV-positive citizens. The government produces eight of 12 patented antiretroviral drugs generically at the state-owned factory, Far-Manguinhos, over the objections of many pharmaceutical companies. Doctors Without Borders intends not only to export the prevention model and Brazilian-produced generic drugs but also to teach other developing nations how to set up their own generic drug factories. "One of the aspects is exporting the drugs, but it's also to implement training, production of generics and help with distribution logistics," Pecoul said, adding that nations such as Argentina have the resources to develop their own programs, while other countries in Africa and Central America may have to "pool resources" to start regional programs. The group will also purchase drugs from Brazil for its own programs, but Pecoul "emphasized" that it was not a "commercial operation" (Reuters/New York Times, 9/13).
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