In coming years there will be billions of dollars spent on AIDS medicines, most on generic drugs. The future of the AIDS response pivots on these purchases: they are the biggest line item in most AIDS programs, and programs and individuals will become
totally dependent on continued future funding by "fickle" donors.
Unfortunately, there is relatively little good information online focusing on drug purchases. The Global Fund will be launching a
drug price database (a big help), but other donors have not disclosed budgets or pricing information, and additional systems of surveillance of
black market pricing or other data are not in place.
One step that would help greatly would be for interested donors to establish an "AIDS Drug Watch" Web site that would:
- Explain current issues with drug purchases (including contrasting perspectives of donors, Pharma, and countries);
- Aggregate drug budget information from different donors;
- Aggregate price data (as best possible) from different countries;
- Highlight areas requiring improvement.
Good recent examples exist of "transparency" efforts such as this, including the excellent "
Oil Revenue Watch" sites of the
Open Society Institute.
A "AIDS Drug Watch" site, to run well, would cost low to mid six figures per year, not a middling sum. It could play a key role, however, in performance and accountability of a principal element in our battle against global AIDS.
