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ARV costs


Even though the price of the anti-retroviral drugs to treat AIDS patients have come down to Rs 33 per person a day, only 25 out of 5,000 infected people in Nepal are getting it. Those who have access to the drugs pay $420 per year. The common minimum price that was discussed was $200 per person a year, said Rajib Kafle, an activist who himself has HIV. Kafle said that the price of anti-retrovirals came down because of generic drugs that ended the monopoly of multinationals. Though brand manufacturers claim that their investment on research and development has added to the high cost of their drugs, generic manufacturers disagree. Kafle says ARV drugs can be made cheaper in Nepal. Says Kafle: China is the largest producer of the active ingredients, India is the biggest exporter of the generic anti-retrovirals and Nepal lies between the two.



LATEST ISSUE
638
(11 JAN 2013 - 17 JAN 2013)


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