China-made AIDS drug to hit market
27/3/2003 18:02
The first batch of four China-made AIDS drugs will hit the market this
year, at prices less than one-tenth of the imported medicines, today's
eastday.com reported, citing officials with the State Drug Administration
(SDA).
The administration has set the price for a year's use of these
four drugs at 3,538 yuan (US$428), compared with 30,000 yuan to 50,000 yuan for
the imported products.
Shanghai Desano Drug Co Ltd. and Northeast
Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd. are the only two SDA authorized manufacturers of
the four products, the main drugs in the AIDS cocktail therapy widely adopted
throughout the world.
China organized the domestic production and
exempted value-added taxes for the companies in a bid to cut the high drug cost
for AIDS/HIV patients.
Currently, all AIDS drugs are imported and are
very expensive.
Because the cost is unaffordable for most domestic
patients, only a little over 200 of the some one million AIDS/HIV carriers in
China took the four drugs in the first half of last year, said Chen Xianyi,
senior official of the Health Ministry.
The four drugs have been
extremely effective in reducing the HIV virus in and boosting the immunity of
these patients, said Zhang Fujie, director of the National Center for AIDS/STD
Control and Prevention under the Chinese Center for Disease Control and
Prevention.
After one year of continuous treatment most of the patients
can return to normal life, he said.
The youngest of the patients is eight
years old while the eldest is 65, he added.
To further bring down the
overall treatment cost for AIDS patients, China plans to introduce more
domestically produced drugs as well as develop its own therapies, Zhang
said.
Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news
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