Brazil agrees to share HIV drug know-how with Portuguese-speaking states

Julian Meldrum
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This article is more than 22 years old.

The eight member governments of the Portuguese Language Community (CPLP) have signed a cooperation agreement on AIDS under which Brazil is offering to help an African member state – which would probably be Mozambique – to build a facility to produce generic antiretrovirals.

The project will be seeking financial support in the region of US$30 million from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and will be employing a consultant to make a formal application under the Global Fund’s next grants round in September this year.

Brazil’s contribution –in line with a wider offer of technical support to developing countries, made during the XIV International Conference on AIDS in Barcelona last month (as reported here) – will include:

Glossary

generic

In relation to medicines, a drug manufactured and sold without a brand name, in situations where the original manufacturer’s patent has expired or is not enforced. Generic drugs contain the same active ingredients as branded drugs, and have comparable strength, safety, efficacy and quality.

malaria

A serious disease caused by a parasite that commonly infects a certain type of mosquito which feeds on humans. People who get malaria are typically very sick with high fevers, shaking chills, and flu-like illness. 

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) brings together the resources of ten United Nations organisations in response to HIV and AIDS.

  • Provision of scientific information in Portuguese

  • Training on HIV prevention

  • Assistance in developing programmes for treatment and care, based on the principle that drug prices should be reduced in line with countries' ability to pay.

The CPLP, founded in 1996, is made up of Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tomé and Príncipe, and the newly-independent state of East Timor. According to UNAIDS, Mozambique is by far the worst-affected by HIV/AIDS, having 13% of its adult population (aged 15-49) living with HIV; Angola has 5.5%, Guinea-Bissau 2.8% and Brazil 0.6%.

Further information (in Portuguese) is available here from the Brazilian government’s AIDS programme site.

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