BEIJING - Three years after China launched an ambitious plan to provide free anti-retroviral treatment to all HIV/ AIDS patients, it urgently needs better quality drugs and child medication, a top official says.

One of the biggest obstacles is finding patients in the vast country, said Zhang Fujie, head of China's AIDS treatment program.

"We definitely need to improve our treatment. There's no question about it," said Zhang, speaking to AFP before heading to the world's biggest International AIDS Conference in Toronto, which opens on Sunday.

"We're talking to pharmaceuticals. We definitely want to buy second-line drugs."

The drugs offered under China's free treatment program are older versions of the life-saving therapy drugs used in Europe and the United States with expired patents.

The drugs have strong side effects but are the only type China can afford to manufacture without breaking international patent laws and suffering trade repercussions.

China is also desperately short of trained medical workers to keep people on the medication so more patients are dropping out and developing resistance.

"The drugs no longer work as effectively for them," said Zhang.

Zhang did not give a timeline for when China would obtain the better quality second-line drugs and whether pharmaceuticals had agreed to allow China to buy them at lower costs, but he said it was a high priority.

Once the drugs become available, patients, who currently only have seven drug choices, will get a wider variety of therapy combinations. The death rate will then be reduced from the current estimated 10 percent of the drug-taking patients, Zhang said.

"In Europe and the United States, I believe the death rate is around three per 100 people on treatment each year. We hope in China we can come close to this," said Zhang.

Page:

1

2