By Raymond Baguma
THE Global Fund (GF) will consider buying ARVs manufactured in Uganda if they are affordable and meet approved standards.
The executive director of the Global Fund Against AIDS, TB and Malaria, Michel Kazatchkline, said:
“As a donor, what I am ready to fund is the cheapest drug available, which is of
quality. It is okay if Uganda produces its own ARVs. The drug should be of
approved quality and cheap. Otherwise, I will ask the Uganda government to buy
drugs elsewhere.”
He was addressing journalists at the global meeting for HIV/aids implementers in Kampala.
The five-day conference at Imperial Royale Hotel attracted over 1,700 participants from Africa, Europe, Asia and Latin America.
During the opening ceremony, President Yoweri Museveni criticised donors for setting stringent regulations to guide recipient countries during the procurement of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.
Museveni said Uganda has constructed an ARV manufacturing factory, which will also manufacture malaria drugs and other antibiotics.
However, donor regulations provide that their funds should be used to buy drugs manufactured by foreign countries.
Kazatchkline said the Global Fund had committed more than US$11b to 136 countries during its six years in existence and that 60% of the funding benefits African countries, the main recipients.
Kazatchkline said he met President Museveni, who made a commitment to completing all investigations into the Global Fund scandal and the recovery of the embezzled funds.
Dr. Thomas Kenyon, the Chief Medical Officer of the US Presidential Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, said there were no strings attached to donor aid.
Rather, he added, donors only fund what the aid recipient countries need. “Country ownership is the basic principle by which we work. what we link to our funds is accountability.
The landscape is now moving out of the concept of donor-beneficiaries and moving to the concept of partners,” Kenyon explained.
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