Thailand’s Government Pharmaceutical Organisation is to begin production of a three drug combination in one tablet that will cost only $27 per month, a 75% reduction in the cost of treatment with d4T, 3TC and nevirapine compared to current prices.
The product, called GPO-Vir, will become available in April. The Government Pharmaceutical Organisation joins the Indian companies Cipla, Aurobindo and Ranbaxy, which already offer a three drug in one tablet formulation of d4T, 3TCand nevirapine at a similar price.
Speaking last month at the Ninth Annual Retroviruses Conference in Seattle, Dr Praphan Phanuphak of the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre said “This will make triple therapy affordable for many Thais”. However, he pointed out that second-line treatment options would be considerably more expensive.
“AZT/DDI and a protease inhibitor will be five times more expensive, making it difficult for people to switch therapy”, he said.
He also highlighted the limited choices facing many Thais who have only been able to afford dual therapy with nucleoside analogues until now. He said that many patients will be willing to pay $70 for a resistance test in order to find out whether they can switch to the new low-cost triple combination. In a cohort of 145 Thai patients who had been receiving AZT/ddI for up to six years, he reported that 42 had evidence of drug resistance, with one-third having more than four nucleoside analogue mutations.
He also reported that the Thai Government Pharmaceutical Organisation has requested bioequivalence data from Indian manufacturers for generic antiretroviral agents, and is carrying out its own bioequivalence tests to ensure that generic products have the same pharmacokinetics as branded antiretrovirals.