E-DRUG: Argentina. Stockouts of ARVs threatens continuation of HIV treatments
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Buenos Aires, July 6 2018. In a context of economic crisis of magnitude
that Argentina is facing there are stockouts of essential medicines.
According to key informants, the shortage of medicines is due to the lack
of public purchases. While the authorities of the Ministry of Health delay
the provision of official information there are disruptions in HIV and Hep
C treatments.
In Argentina there are 122,000 people with HIV; 69,200 are under treatment,
70% of those 46,518 receive their medicines through the public provision
program of the National Ministry of Health.
Since January 2016 there have been shortages and fractionation in the
delivery of antiretroviral drugs in the country. The complaints were made
by organizations of people with HIV who were detecting problems at the
levels of the health centers.
The situation continue to worsen and in January 2018 news about delays in
the processing of public purchases became public and notorious. Before the
request of official information, the Head of the National AIDS Program
informed to national media that the administrative files awaited the
issuance of payments. Two of the most important newspapers in Argentina
published the story
See La Nacion
<https://www.lanacion.com.ar/2102515-inquietud-por-el-faltante-de-medicamentos-para-tratamientos-contra-el-vih>,
and Clarin
<https://www.clarin.com/sociedad/alerta-faltantes-medicamentos-pacientes-vih_0_HJxDWN-Sf.html>
According to a report GEP received from the Ministry of Health in January
2018, only four ARVs -out of 42 that are included in the national vademecum
of medicines- were bought in 2017.
'*We are concerned about the Ministry of Health not being able to sustain
procurement of medicines. The lives of thousands of people in Argentina
depends on the public system. The economical crisis in Argentina should not
be an excuse for failing people' expressed Lorena Di Giano, Executive
Director of Fundacion Grupo Efecto Positivo.
In 2018, although there has been purchase orders processed for 15 ARVs and
DAA in two public tenders, the same are still pending of payment key
informants unofficially unveiled. The delivery and distribution of ARVs is
stalled jeopardizing access to treatments.
One of the regimens that for the last two years was bought through the PAHO
Strategic Fund
<https://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12163%3Apaho-strategic-fund&catid=8775%3Aabout&Itemid=42005&lang=en>
is TDF + EFV + FTC. More than 10,000 people are under treatment with this
combination. There is an ongoing process for the acquisition of the
combination that is facing undue delays putting at risk the procurement of
the medicines for the next incoming months. No official information about
the process of this purchase has been released. Ministry of Health sources
informed GEP that the purchase would be blocked due to lack of available
financing to make it effective.
Fundacion GEP is monitoring these public purchases, as part of its strategy
to improve access, main goal of Access to Medicines Program. On 12 July
2018 Fundacion GEP will hold a Seminar with the objective to release its 4
years of implementation report that addresses the strategies GEP has
implemented to mitigate the impact of intellectual property on ARVs and Hep
C medicines.
Since 2012 GEP has been filing pre-grant patent oppositions
before INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property) having achieved
more than US$ 160 millions in savings in the public purchase of ARVs and
Hepatitis C medicines.
*In this scenario, if the situation regarding HIV and HepC medicines public
purchases remains the same, stockouts are most likely to continue
throughout the year.*
*GEP is a civil society organization founded and lead by people with HIV
and Hepatitis C who work for the improvement of the quality of life of
affected communities.*
Contact: lorenadigiano@gmail.com
For more information: www.fgep.org
María Lorena Di Giano
Directora Ejecutiva FGEP
Fundación Grupo Efecto Positivo *
www.fgep.org
Buenos Aires- Mar del Plata- Argentina
Coordinadora General RedLAM
Red Latinoamericana por el Acceso a Medicamentos
www.redlam.org
Lorena Di Giano <lorenadigiano@gmail.com>