India could soon run out of drugs vital for treating HIV and AIDS, due to bureaucracy, a new report claims. Supplies of the vital drug, which is dispensed for free to patients, could run out in as little as three weeks. This could leave as many as 150,000 people without access to the medicine.
Tenofovir is combined with lamivudine, and manufactured by several companies, including Aurobindo Pharma.
Drug resistance can build up in users who go without the drug for a period of time, and then begin again. This can result in faster progression of the virus. It is administered in the form of a tablet, which can be ingested with or without food.
India is home to around 2.1 patients with HIV and AIDS, one-third of whom are treated with antiretroviral drugs provided free of charge by the government. These medicines are obtained from pharmaceutical companies through a bidding process.
"We are also fed up. What to do? There are so many bureaucratic hurdles. The file goes to so many tables, and so many comments," NACO Deputy Director General A.S. Rathore said.
Several sources report a tender, or bid, has been accepted by the government to supply the drug, but the order may not be filled until late November, weeks after supplies will run out.
Aurobindo Pharma has received a request from the government of India to speed delivery of the vital medicine. However, the nation's health secretary, Lov Verma, stated the problem is not as severe as many people believe.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised the people of his nation he would deliver better quality health care for a lower cost than before. This new development could be a public relations disaster for his government, now just four months old.
Approximately 140,000 people died of AIDS in India during 2012, more than half the fatalities reported in Asia-Pacific, according to the UN Aids Program. The nation has the third-largest population of people in the world affected by the virus. The program providing no-cost antiretroviral drugs began in 2004, but only about half of eligible patients participate in the system.
"[The National AIDS Control Organisation] stands committed to building an enabling environment wherein those infected and affected by HIV play a central role in all responses to the epidemic - at state, district and grassroot level," NACO officials wrote on their website.
Tenofovir is always prescribed in conjunction with other drugs designed to fight the disease. It is a form of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI). The drug works by blocking an enzyme called HIV reverse transcriptase.
