New cheaper, safer, better HIV drugs for SA

THE new antiretrovirals South Africa will introduce next year are cheaper than current drugs‚ have far fewer side effects and HIV cannot develop resistance to them.

“It’s not often in medicine we get something safer and more effective that is also cheaper. This is a big step forward‚” said the deputy director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, Professor Francois Venter. Usually better drugs are more expensive‚ he added.

Last week‚ Bill Gates announced at the UN’s General Assembly the drug would be scaled up by manufacturers at a capped price of $75 (about R1 000) a year.

The Gates Foundation has given a financial assurance to drug manufacturers that the volumes needed for a low price would be bought.

South Africa offers three drugs in a single pill and one of the drugs – Efavirenz – will be replaced with the new drug‚ Dolutegravir‚ which has far fewer side effects.

Dolutegravir is used by HIV-positive patients in Europe and America.

Efavirenz‚ which is used locally‚ causes depression in some users as well as insomnia‚ nightmares and hallucinations. It can cause severe liver damage in very rare cases.

Dolutegravir is more pleasant to take‚ which the health department says could mean people adhere to treatment better.

If a person takes ARVs properly‚ the medicine stops the virus replicating and they become non-infectious.

Health department spokesman Joe Maila said: “Dolutegravir is well tolerated by patients and has fewer side effects. Patients are therefore more likely to be adherent and more likely to be virally suppressed – which means that they are not likely to transmit the virus to others.”

South Africa has the largest HIV treatment programme in the world with the lowest-priced ARVs.

There was no way to manufacturer the current treatment any cheaper‚ which is sold at less than R90 a month per patient.

The new drug, Dolutegravir, cheaper because less ingredient needed in the pill.

“In other words it is is

is cheaper to make‚” Venter explained.

A lower price will be one way to scale up treatment available‚ from 3.9 million South Africans to about 6.5 million.

It is state policy that all HIV-positive people get treatment.

Dolutegravir is a drug that the virus does not become resistant to.

This means less people will require more expensive ARV drugs due to resistance.

It is completely speculative‚ said Venter, but scientists take a wild guess that 2% of people each year develop resistance to ARVs. — DDC