Washington Post (11/05/97) P. A2; Brown, David
The Joint United Nations Program on AIDS (UNAIDS) today will announce four new pilot projects in the Ivory Coast, Uganda, Chile, and Vietnam. The projects will attempt to show that combination therapies can be made available to people in less developed countries. While the initiative's planners admit the two-year project is based on uncertainty and optimism, Joseph Saba, the UNAIDS official who will head the program, said the "main purpose is to get the treatment to these countries, and in fact to demonstrate there are workable solutions." Protease inhibitors and other infection-fighting treatments have significantly reduced the death rate from AIDS in the United States, but the therapies cost over $10,000 a year per patient. The UNAIDS projects will treat about 3,000 HIV-infected individuals in each country, focusing on economics and medical infrastructure rather than a clinical determination of treatment efficacy. UNAIDS plans to spend about $1 million next year to ensure that doctors familiar with anti-AIDS drugs, laboratories capable of carrying out the necessary monitoring tests, and adequately equipped pharmacies are in place at each location. While drug manufacturers will sell the treatments to program boards at a considerable discount, the companies do not expect to be "selling at a loss as a routine," noted Peter Young, vice president in charge of HIV medicines at Glaxo Wellcome.
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