Abstract

COLLAZO HERRERA, Manuel M. et al. Analysis of the problem to acquire HIV/AIDS antiretroviral drugs in the Third World countries. Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr [online]. 2004, vol.20, n.4, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1561-3038.

The objective of the present paper is to deal with the existing problem for the acquisition of the HIV/AIDS antiretroviral drugs in the world context, mainly with the situation of the developing countries, which have to invest enough economic resources in the health sphere that are not available at present in the poorest countries in order to obtain global acces to treatment. This is motivated by the high prices of the antiretroviral drugs set by the pharmaceutical transnationals at the world market This aspect has a considerable impact in the increase of the treatment costs and it is one of the main obstacles for their availabilty in the Third World countries. Due to the dramatic panorama of HIV/AIDS in the world, the international community has pronounced itself in favor of reaching different agreements between the antiretroviral drugs producers and the goverments of the developing countries to attain an important reduction of the antiretroviral treatment cost. There are also local initiatives of some underdeveloped nations to produce these drugs to guarantee a sustained global access of patients to this therapy. All these efforts are directed to a common purpose: to have the greatest amount of antiretrovirals in the therapeutic arsenal for treating HIV/AIDS, as well as to look for different ways for the acquisition of these drugs under more favorable economic conditions than the existing at the international pharmaceutical market for the poorest countries, making possible the obtention of the health benefit for patients at a more reasonable cost for the damaged economies of the underdeveloped countrties.

Keywords : Antiretroviral drugs; cost; acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS); multinational enterprises (MNE); pharmaceutical market.