Access to drugs for all

People around the world need access to life-saving drugs. UNAIDS and Antiviral Therapy have launched a journal supplement, in a collaboration brokered by Joep Lange, to highlight the lessons learned for HIV and for other diseases on scaling up access to generic drugs. Urgent attention is needed now to ensure the research and development of generic drugs and to their production, approval, and distribution to fill the gap in low- and middle-income countries.

Increased use of generic anti-retroviral drugs (ARV) has contributed to the recent dramatic growth in the numbers of people living with HIV who are on anti-retroviral therapy (ART).  In the absence of a cure for HIV, production and delivery of ARV in resource-limited settings needs to be made more effective and efficient. For this to happen, national and international regulatory mechanisms within free-market economic systems must evolve to address increasingly complex patent issues. Lowering prices while ensuring the quality of lifelong ART requires political vision, commitment, partnerships, and sharing of knowledge and technologies.

 

Joep Lange was a major driving force behind the movement to make antiretroviral drugs available to people in need in resource-constrained settings. A clinician-scientist, Joep championed access to antiretroviral and other drugs for everyone. You can access the supplement here.