Vietnam to produce cheaper HIV/AIDS medicine

A Vietnamese-German joint venture has been licensed to supply locally-produced HIV/AIDS medicines in Vietnam at a fraction of imported drug costs.

Stada Vietnam will produce three types of new economical AIDS medicines - Stavudine Stada, Lamzidivir Stada and Nevirapine Stada - which could reduce the average annual cost of AIDS treatment in Vietnam from $3,000-4,000 to just $180.

HIV/AIDS treatment has been steadily improving in Vietnam recently, said an official from Ministry of Health, but he added that the number of infections has also been rising.
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Bulgaria To Sign Over Libyan Debt

Bulgaria will officially sign over the debt it is owed by Libya, a total USD 56,6 M, to a fund that will treat Libya's HIV-infected children, the Bulgarian foreign ministry said on Monday.

The agreement will be signed on Monday by Bulgaria's deputy foreign minister Feim Chaushev and the chairman of the Benghazi International Fund, Mark Pierini.

Bulgaria's cabinet agreed to write off the debt owed by Libya after six Bulgarian medics were returned to home soil from the North African country.

The medics have spent more than eight years in jail on charges of deliberately infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.read more

Chandigarh shows the way in HIV care

Chandigarh, Sep 1: A person wanting to know about his or her HIV status, can simply walk into anyone of Chandigarh's four Integrated Control and Testing Centres (ICTC) and gather information, or to remove misconceptions about the disease.

A mobile testing centre, also run by the SACS, visits to places to spread awareness about ways to combat the disease.

Puja's support group also conducts novel awareness drives in high-risk areas.

The Central Government is finalising a legislation to protect HIV/AIDS victims against discrimination in schools, offices and hospitals.read more

HIV drug may harbour cancer cure

London, Sept. 1: An antiretroviral drug used in the treatment of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is also capable of slowing down the growth of cancer cells, say scientists.

The researchers used six approved HIV drugs in their experiments. They found that three of the drugs significantly slowed the growth of the tumour cells, and increased cell death.

Nelfinavir was found to be the most effective of the three drugs.read more

AIDS needs more attention in Yemen

Dr. Jamil al-Mughales works in Saudi Arabia, but he still tries to help his home country, Yemen.
Yemen is still greatly lacking in AIDS education, and the facilities needed to treat patients, said Dr. Jamil Abdul-Wali Raweh al-Mughales, the Head of Clinical Immunology Services in the Immunology Department of the medical center at the King Abdulaziz University hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. While the disease has not reached epidemic proportions in this country, care must be taken now to prevent the spread of the disease.

Unfortunately, the problem of AIDS does not receive enough support in Yemen, though it has become a very important issue in this country. There are more than 300,000 immigrants from Africa, adding a dangerous burden to the main problem of AIDS in Yemen. Moreover, as you know, the health system in Yemen is not really strong enough to support the AIDS strategies in such a country.read more

Network of HIV affected and NGOs

MADURAI: With a view to get the exact figures of HIV infected people, Madurai District Administration would soon form a network of the affected persons and the organisations working for them.

District Collector S S Jawahar said that such a network would also help the administration to extend all the help needed to the affected people.

It was also necessary to provide sex-education to adolescent students, he saidread more

Anti-AIDS blitz sees pharma firms locked in ugly battle

NEW DELHI: It’s a potent cocktail of rivalries involving pharma companies and NGOs. It has now emerged that Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the US-based NGO that accused Cipla of over pricing anti-AIDS drug, Viraday, in India is part funded by American anti-AIDS drug maker Gilead and the NGO’s treasurer is a senior Gilead executive.

This is largely the reason why foreign and Indian NGOs such as Medicine Sans Frontier (MSF), Delhi Network of Positive People (DNP+), Indian Network of Positive People (INP+), Sahara and others refused to be part of AHF’s anti-Cipla campaign.

Cipla had refused Gilead’s offer to sell the latter’s anti-AIDS drug Viread under a licensing agreement. Cipla is also the only Indian company opposing Gilead’s patent application for its blockbuster anti-HIV drug Viread in India. The hearing for the patent case of Viread is due in October.
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