Lack of affordable generics for HIV 'spells disaster'

Middle-income countries will be home to 70% of people living with HIV by 2020 but face increasing threats to their ability to access affordable generic medicines, warned Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at the International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference.

Peter Saranchuk, TB/HIV Advisor for MSF, said: “No one can deny the pivotal role that affordable anti-retrovirals have played in putting 15 million people on HIV treatment, but as we look ahead to the next 15 million, we see that middle-income countries are increasingly constrained in accessing affordable generic medicines, and this spells disaster for the global HIV response.”

About 70% of the world’s poor live in MICs, including India, Kenya, Myanmar, Republic of Congo and South Sudan, and 60% of people with HIV live in these countries. Generic medicines are crucial to countries’ ability to reach the global UNAIDS 90/90/90 targets, which states by 2020, 90% of all people with HIV will know their status; 90% of people diagnosed with HIV will be on ARV treatment; and 90% of those on ARV treatment will have viral suppression.