Newer and improved treatments and tools … for rich patients
Each year sees newer and more improved HIV drugs coming on to the market. Because HIV/AIDS affects people in rich countries, the pharmaceutical industry puts considerable resources into developing ever-improved treatments. But the benefits of these medical advances are not passed on to patients in poorer countries. The pharmaceutical industry is simply not developing medicines and medical tools according to the specific needs of people in developing countries, where more than 90% of HIV-positive people live.

For instance, most HIV drugs in development won’t be tested in children, as there are so few children that need AIDS treatment in rich countries, and there are no easy-to-use rapid diagnostic tools that can test for HIV in children under the age of 18 months. We also urgently need a simple and rapid test developed for use in the field that will measure the ‘viral load’ of a patient, in order to judge when treatment is failing and the patient needs to be switched to a different drug combination.

Further, drug developers do not take into consideration factors such as the requirement for drugs that do not need to be refrigerated in settings where there may be no refrigerators or electricity. And compounds are not tested to see how they interact with other drugs commonly needed in developing countries – an absolute necessity for many people who are infected with both HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) or malaria.

Usually it is only long after a new drug has been launched on the market in Europe and the US that investigations are made to see if the drugs could work in the places where our patients live. But this can take years and is unacceptable. It is crucial that all new ARVs are developed so they can be used for children and pregnant women, and so they do not negatively interact with other medications people with HIV often must take.  

MSF is pushing for drug developers to take into consideration during the drug development process the kind of issues that affect our patients, so that we can help ensure they do not have to wait for years to get access to medical advances widely available in richer countries.

Getting Ahead of the Curve