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Problem A multinational company with operations in several African countries was committed to offer antiretroviral treatment to its employees and their dependants.
Approach The Accelerating Access Initiative (AAI), an initiative of six pharmaceutical companies and five United Nations' agencies, offered the possibility of obtaining brand antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) at 10% of the commercial price. PharmAccess, a foundation aimed at removing barriers to AIDS treatment in Africa, helped to establish an HIV policy and treatment guidelines, and a workplace programme was rolled out from September 2001.
Local setting Private sector employers in Africa are keen to take more responsibility in HIV prevention and AIDS care. An important hurdle for African employers remains the price and availability of ARVs.
Relevant changes The programme encountered various hurdles, among them the need for multiple contracts with multiple companies, complex importation procedures, taxes levied on ARVs, lack of support from pharmaceutical companies in importation and transportation, slow delivery of the drugs, lack of institutional memory in pharmaceutical companies and government policies excluding the company from access to ARVs under the AAI.
Lessons learned The launch of the AAI enabled this multinational company to offer access to ARVs to its employees and dependants. The private sector should have access to these discounted drugs under the AAI. A network of local AAI offices should be created to assist in logistics of drugs ordering, purchase and clearance. No taxes should be levied on ARVs.
Problem
HIV is the largest threat to adult survival in sub-Saharan Africa. According to UNAIDS, 33 million people were living with HIV by December 2007, of whom 22 million were in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2007 an estimated 1.5 million sub- Saharan Africans died of AIDS and an estimated 1.9 million became infected with HIV.1 Several international initiatives were launched to increase funding for antiretroviral therapy. This has led to a spectacular increase in access to antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) in Africa: by April 2007 an estimated 28% of eligible HIV patients in sub-Saharan Africa were on ARVs.2 One initiative that aimed to increase access was the Accelerating Access Initiative (AAI). This paper reports practical experiences of a multinational company with the AAI.
Approach
In May 2000 five United Nations organizations - United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children's...