HIV: “Africa Has Access To The World’s Best Treatment For Children”

Children living with HIV in developing countries will be able to access more appropriate treatment and, above all, four times cheaper.

Long-awaited HIV treatment designed specifically for children will now be available in low- and middle-income countries, thanks to a landmark agreement between Unitaid and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) .

” Children in low- and middle-income countries often wait years for access to the same medicines as adults, which affects their quality of life, and sometimes leads to preventable deaths,” said the executive director of UnitAID, Philippe Duneton. ” This innovative agreement will make dispersible DTGs of guaranteed quality available to children at a record rate. Ensuring access to this treatment will transform the lives of children living with HIV, helping them stay on treatment and saving thousands of lives “.

The new product will be available first in Benin, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda and Zimbabwe during the first half of 2021, “with a goal of rapidly expanding distribution to a large number of countries”.

” Today, with triple therapy, if pregnant women who are HIV-positive are screened and take their treatment correctly, they do not transmit the HIV virus to their child. This explains why in Europe or in the United States United, we hardly see any more children who are HIV positive. Unfortunately, in countries like Nigeria and others in Africa, there is not enough coverage of these programs yet and we are still seeing a lot of HIV. ‘children who continue to be born with HIV and who need this treatment. We have therefore chosen countries with which we have a partnership already in place and which have real treatment needs for children infected with HIV “, explains Louis Pizzaro, head of a UnitAID program team in charge of HIV projects.

For Mûtahi Kagwe, Chief of Staff at Kenya’s Ministry of Health, ” this announcement marks a sea change in the quality of treatment for HIV in children. Kenya intends to be the first country to adopt the new DTG 10mg pediatric formulation, which will improve treatment, reduce unpleasant side effects and help children stay on treatment and lead healthy lives. We are delighted that, for the first time, Kenya and other countries can offer children the same quality of treatment as adults, which has been made possible by the development of this new formulation. ”

” Today, after years of work, with this new drug, we are at the forefront of recommendations and Africa has access to the best treatment in the world against HIV for children ” – Louis Pizzaro, head of a UnitAID program team is responsible for HIV projects.

– Access to treatment and disparities between regions –

” In general, we have seen in recent years, thanks to the efforts of the international community, a considerable increase in access to treatment for adults. In the countries of southern Africa, for example, we now have an antiretroviral coverage – people who need treatment do get it – but there are still regional disparities in Africa.

West and Central Africa, which had smaller epidemics than those seen in southern Africa, received less resources, but above all have health systems that are much more fragile. In very large countries with a rural population, etc. the ministries of health sometimes have more difficulty reaching all the inhabitants .

In these areas, the tests do not necessarily arrive and suddenly many women are HIV positive, but do not know it and continue to transmit HIV to their child. So a country like Nigeria, for example, has more than 20% of children still born with HIV, given the population density and the very large size of the country.

Children remain a population with very important access issues. This is why, with Unitaid, we have decided to focus on this population for several years “, details Louis Pizzaro, head of a Unitaid program team in charge of HIV projects.

– Price divided by four –

This new treatment, which includes a new component truly adapted to the specific needs of children, will drop from more than $ 480 per child to less than $ 120 per year per child.

The price agreement concluded with generic manufacturers Viatris and Macleods will indeed reduce the price of one of the components of the cocktail used to contain HIV to 36 dollars per child against 400 previously. This is dolutegravir (DTG) which is considered a first-line treatment drug .

– Strawberry flavor –

Many children go untreated due to lack of access to easy-to-take and appropriate medicines.

Strawberry flavored, this new dispersible DTG 10 mg tablet is more appealing to children. Presented in the form of soluble tablets, it is also more easily accepted by the latter than the preceding treatments which were presented in the form of large insoluble tablet.

This new treatment will allow them to continue taking their medications and prevent thousands of premature deaths each year, transforming pediatric HIV treatment in low- and middle-income countries.

Around 1.7 million children around the world are HIV positive, but only half of them receive treatment and 100,000 die each year .