New Delhi: There is shortage of supply of HIV/AIDS drug which has been provide by the free medicine program of government in India. Notify that some drug makers had halted supplies due to delayed payments after which shortage have come in existence which result thousands of patients in India without treatment.
A report had claimed that National AIDS Control Organization of India, which is part of the healthcare ministry, acquires antiretroviral drugs for treating HIV/AIDS from companies through a bidding process and then supplies the drugs to healthcare providers across the country.
Because of delay in the payment, some drugmakers stopped participating in the bidding over the last year. It resulted in a drug shortage.
According to United Nations’ AIDS program, had the third-largest number of people living with HIV in the world, accounting for about four out of 10 people living with HIV in the Asian region at the end of 2013.
Leena Menghaney, an activist with the medical charity Medicins Sans Frontiere said, “The supply chain has broken down, tenders have not been filled. As a result there are not enough drugs in the program to meet the needs of the people. Patients have been told to fend for themselves… No manufacturer who supplies to the national program, where the margins are miniscule, should have to be faced with payment delays. But the way to deal with that is not to boycott the program.”
Meanwhile NACO officials in New Delhi could not be reached for comment.
Bureau Report
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