Hanoi (VNA) - The Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control said the country hassuccessfully bidden anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs with prices 15-17 percent lowerthan those of similar drugs in use, bringing more hopes to local HIV/AIDSpatients.

Before 2015, ARVdrugs often came from drug aid by foreign organisations, including USgovernment-backed President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), theGlobal Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, as well as support fromthe Clinton Foundation.

Since theseorganisations have run programmes to provide ARV drugs in large amounts to alot of countries over a long time, in order to ensure the same quality of drugsfor all recipient countries, they would bulk purchase from the producers for aslightly better price.

From 2015,overseas funding for HIV/AIDS treatment pills began to drop. To make sure thatthe supply of ARV drugs would not be interrupted, the Government has tasked thehealth ministry with using the State budget to purchase ARV drugs. TheAdministration of HIV/AIDS Control, with the help of internationalorganisations, has managed to negotiate and win bids to buy the drugs in linewith World Health Organisation (WHO) standards.

In 2016, for thefirst time ever, the department bought 6.4 million 3-in-1 ARV pills – a singleone of these 1200mg pills would contain the three types of medications thatpatients needed – for the price of 7.299 VND or 0.32 USD (5 percent VAT alreadyincluded). Vietnam has managed to secure a better deal, buying the pills 16.6percent cheaper compared with the Global Fund’s purchase price of 0.3681 USD,or 17.8 percent cheaper against the purchase price of PEPFAR’s 0.3728 USD.

In 2017, thecountry procured 3 million 3-in-1 ARV pills at an even lower price, 0.268 USD,15 percent cheaper compared to 2016 and still lower than the purchase pricesfrom the two abovementioned aid agencies.

The HIV/AIDSControl department said that towards the goal of covering 90 percent ofHIV/AIDS patients with affordable treatment regimes, the financial sum would bea burden on the State budget.

Dr Kato Masaya,Coordinator for Communicable Disease Group at the WHO Vietnam Country Office,said WHO considers Vietnam a highlight in the region in treating HIV/AIDS withARV, especially its efforts in implementing WHO’s recommendations ondiagnostics and maximising coverage of ARV treatment.

Currently, thereare 130,000 Vietnamese patients under treatment with ARV drugs.

According toworld experts, in the past decade, the increasingly accessible ARV therapieshave helped 150,000 HIV patients escape death and prevent infection in 450,000people.-VNA