Efforts to get HIV drugs to developing nations got a kick in the teeth with news that perhaps a quarter of the drugs Epivir, Combivir, and Trizivir that have been shipped to Africa have been hijacked and sold in Europe. The drugs had been donated by GlaxoSmithKline for use in western Africa and are worth about $28 million.
The Washington Post reported Oct. 3 that at least some of the drugs were shipped to Africa but never made it out of the airport before being diverted and flown back to Europe. The drugs shipped to Africa look the same and have the same packaging as those sold in Europe and the only way one can distinguish between them is by lot number. Glaxo is considering changing the appearance of the pills and their packaging for medicines that they donate or sell at low cost.
The losers are African patients, who did not receive the donated medicines, and Glaxo, which lost millions in sales in Europe.
In Uganda, health ministry officials have discovered that an unknown quantity of the antifungal drug Diflucan, donated by Pfizer to treat HIV-associated opportunistic infections, has been diverted and is being sold on the open market in Uganda.
Meanwhile, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria has its hand out for an additional $2 billion for its programs.