Article: U.S. Company Offers AIDS Antifungal Drug to Least Developed Countries

07 June 2001

Article: U.S. Company Offers AIDS Antifungal Drug to Least Developed Countries

Pfizer will also provide medical training and patient education

By Jim Fuller
Washington File Science Writer

Washington -- An American pharmaceutical company has announced that it will offer to HIV/AIDS patients in more than 50 developing countries an unlimited free supply of a drug to combat fungal infections that frequently occur in AIDS victims.

Pfizer Incorporated, which markets the antifungal medicine under the brand name Diflucan, said the drug would be offered free of charge to least developed nations under a program developed in cooperation with U.N. agencies such as the World Health Organization (W.H.O.).

The company began providing the drug early this year under the existing South African Diflucan Partnership, a collaboration between Pfizer and the South African Ministry of Health. To date, 185 institutions in South Africa have begun to distribute the medicine through the program.

Dr. Henry McKinnell, chairman and chief executive officer of Pfizer, told reporters June 6 that the project will now be extended to five other countries in the region -- Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia and Swaziland. He said that Pfizer was also inviting the governments of all 50 countries that the United Nations considers to be the world's poorest and most affected by AIDS to participate in the project.

"The HIV/AIDS epidemic is a tragedy of unprecedented magnitude," McKinnell said. "We will support this initiative for as long as it is needed, and we will continue to work with the U.N., the W.H.O. and other international organizations to ensure public/private partnerships like the Diflucan program can be most effective."

McKinnell said Pfizer will also offer treatment programs that will include education of patients and healthcare providers, the appropriate dispensing of medicines, and ongoing monitoring and support from partner governments. In order to expedite the delivery of Diflucan, he said the company would ship the medicine through existing distribution networks in the targeted countries, with the approval of the appropriate government and medical authorities.

While Diflucan is not a treatment for HIV/AIDS, it has proven highly effective in treating two opportunistic infections that afflict large numbers of people with AIDS -- cryptococcal meningitis and esophageal candidiasis.

Cryptococcal meningitis is an infection of the brain and spinal cord that occurs in one of every 10 AIDS patients and kills more than 20 percent of those affected. Esophageal candidiasis is a debilitating fungal infection of the esophagus reported in 20 to 40 percent of AIDS patients. It can cause chest pain, nausea and vomiting as well as impair the ability to swallow, which leads to weight loss and fatigue.

The Pfizer announcement was welcomed by Peter Piot, the director of the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), who said it would have "a significant impact."

South Africa's ambassador to the United States, Sheila V.M. Sisulu, also endorsed the project. "What makes this offer so special is the appreciation that the planning required for the implementation ... must be done in conjunction with governments in order to meet the priorities identified," she said.

Joel Presseley, executive director of the New York AIDS Coalition, called the Pfizer project a major step in the right direction. "However, it and other pharmaceuticals along with policymakers near and far must make giant strides to find proactive, creative and comprehensive solutions to stem and stop the tide of despair and misery" caused by the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, he added.

Diflucan, first patented in 1982 by Pfizer, will remain patented until 2004 in the United States and many other countries. Pfizer said that in the United States Diflucan costs about $10 per daily dose, and must be taken for life in cases of cryptococcal meningitis.