18 - Production and International Marketing of Generic Drugs and the Fight Against AIDS in Africa

Jean-Christophe Boungou Bazika

Abstract

The fight against the AIDS pandemic is one of the New Millennium’s major challenges, particularly in Africa which has a large number of HIV-carriers. The measure of success to be achieved in this fight will depend on innovations that will be done in the manufacture and marketing of drugs capable of treating the disease. However, manufacturing and selling such drugs are in themselves not enough; the drugs must be accessible to the people who need them most of whom are poor. The aim
of this study is to explore possibilities of manufacturing and marketing generic AIDS drugs at affordable costs. Studying the production and marketing of AIDS drugs on the international market is important for two reasons. First, AIDS is spreading, with disastrous social and economic consequences for countries in search of growth and development opportunities. In Congo-Brazzaville, for instance, statistics show a sharp increase in the number of AIDS cases. In fact, from 1986 to 1999, the number of infected persons increased from 3,000 to 13,798, that is, an increase of 359.9 percent in 13 years. According to WHO (2002), only 5 percent of AIDS patients in developing countries have access to anti-retroviral drugs, that is, about 230,000 people. Half of those people live in Brazil. Africa stands out as the continent most affected by the pandemic. Indeed, Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 70 percent of the world’s 40 million infected persons and only 50,000 patients can afford treatment, that is, less than 2 percent of the cases (Marchés Tropicaux et Méditerranéens – MTM, 2002). The second reason is that AIDS has been little researched and analyzed by social scientists, in spite of the magnitude of the pandemic and its catastrophic consequences (UNAIDS, 2002). Indeed, adequate multi-dimensional research should be carried out with a view to understanding the socio-economic dimensions of AIDS and identifying not only medical, but also social, economic and cultural solutions, among others, that could contribute to the eradication of the pandemic. This study focuses on two issues: the characteristics of the
manufacture and international marketing of AIDS drugs, on the one h sibilities of reducing prices to make the drugs more accessible to poor countries, on the other.