Developing countries will soon be seeing billions of dollars of new AIDS medicines. There will be a complex system in place to procure, ship and distribute these drugs. Tracking whether or not drugs will be reaching health centers in expected volumes will be extremely difficult.

One idea would be to establish a network of volunteers (or perhaps paid staff) who monitor the black market price of ARVs in cities throughout the world. A network of, say, 200 people in 50 countries monitoring 1000 sites monthly could provide prompt and useful feedback to policymakers pushing ARVs into the pipeline. Such a network could be created out of an existing global network (for example, the IAEN has 9000 economists and policymakers representing nearly every country -- I'm sure many would volunteer) or created afresh. I'm certain a small financial commitment from the Global Fund or WHO could set this idea in motiion.