JAMAICA: Company to begin selling generic anti-AIDS drugs

By The Associated Press   12/15/2001

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) - A Jamaican food company said it would begin selling generic AIDS-fighting drugs, reducing the cost of the treatment in Jamaica by as much as 80 percent.

Jamaicans are dying prematurely because many of them cannot afford the anti-retroviral drugs that extend the life of patients with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, said Lascelles Chin, chairman of the Lasco Group food distributor.

"Many patients no longer have to fill only half their prescriptions because they cannot afford it," he said at a news conference Wednesday.

A monthly dose of one leading anti-retroviral will now cost Jamaican 4,500 (dlrs 95), a savings Chin estimated between Jamaican dlrs 4,000 and dlrs 11,000 (dlrs 85 and dlrs 235).

Ministry of Health officials said there are other forms of generic drugs available to people with HIV and AIDS. More than 12,000 people are believed to have the disease in Jamaica, a nation of 2.6 million

Jamaica: Food company launches cut-price AIDS drugs

Source: Caribbean Media Corporation news agency, Bridgetown, in English 1740 gmt 13 Dec 01/BBC Monitoring/(c) BBC   Text of report by Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) news agency

Kingston, Jamaica, 13 December: Jamaican food and pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors, Lasco Foods is putting cheaper HIV/AIDS drugs on the market, company officials said.   The company announced on Wednesday [12 December] that the cost of the series of anti-retroviral drugs would be up to 80 per cent cheaper than those now on the market.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lascelles Chin said the products will soon be available under the brand name LASMED, produced for Lasco Foods by Indian company, Cipla Limited.

He said in a media statement that thousands of Jamaicans suffering from HIV/AIDS could not afford the high cost of medication for treating the disease, and Lasco decided to step forward and find cheaper, effective drugs.

"We are painfully aware that hundreds of persons living with HIV/AIDS in Jamaica are succumbing to their illness prematurely.

"They can't afford the drug treatments that are helping persons living with HIV and AIDS in richer countries.

"We decided to take up the challenge to find inexpensive anti-retroviral drugs for Jamaica and the Caribbean, so that we can play our part in making real progress against the epidemic.

"We believe that we are fulfilling a mission. If you are sick in Jamaica and need medication, Lasco in making available an affordable alternative," Chin said.

Several sufferers in Jamaica have complained about what they consider to be the high cost of HIV/AIDS drugs.

Since the mid-1980s, just over 5,000 Jamaicans, out of a population of 2.6 million, have been diagnosed with the disease.

In a recent report put out by the Ministry of Health, it emerged that although Jamaica's overall HIV/AIDS figures were high, the rate of infection amongst Jamaicans was decreasing.

The Caribbean region has overall the second fastest growing number of HIV/AIDS cases, next to Africa.