Senator’s Proposed Prize Fund to Create Cheaper HIV/AIDS Drugs
“To me, one of the great moral issues of our day is that there are people in our country suffering and in some cases dying because they are not able to afford a medicine that can be produced for pennies per treatment.”
That was from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ opening statement at a U.S. Senate Subcommittee held last Tuesday to discuss his proposed “Prize Fund for HIV/AIDS Act”, a $3 billion dollar prize pot that would reward drug companies for innovative new HIV drugs, offering an alternative to the long-term monopoly awarded under the current system.
According to the Senator an open innovation contest will accelerate drug development research and provide almost universal access to cheap lifesaving therapeutics for HIV/AIDS as soon as they are approved for sale.
High Prices
He pointed out that Americans pay the highest prices for prescription drugs in the world (for example, 85% higher than in Canada) and that one widely used HIV medication, Atripla, costs $25,000 a year in the U.S., but an FDA-approved generic version of the same pill only costs $200 in the developing world.
Sanders hopes his act will change this situation where currently many Americans who need the drugs the most cannot afford them.
Reward Innovators
The Senator also believes it will open up research as he wants 5% of the prize money to go to individuals, businesses or non-profit organisations that share information technologies, data and materials that lead to the development of new drugs.
“We should reward innovators for developing these new medicines in a way that does not force any of those who need the drug to wait, suffer and in some cases die,” he added.
You can read the senator’s opening statement here.
Reader Comments
Scientists on Monday reported failure in a large African trial of three different ways to protect women against H.I.V.The failure was due not to the methods — two different pills and a vaginal gel — but to the fact that the women did not use them consistently.Adherence among the women in the study was "very low," a researcher from the University of Washington said at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta, where the results were presented.
Posted by Orville Magbitang on March 13, 2013
The cases of hiv infection is actually getting higher and higher instead of getting lower. too many careless people out there. ;
Posted by Vern Morena on November 11, 2012
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