Objective: The objective of this paper is to assist policymakers in developing countries and international donors by providing an outline of economic information needed to make a decision regarding the purchase of drugs to provide highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).
Design: The following paper: (i) reviews existing experiences of policymakers in developing countries regarding the purchase of drugs needed for HAART, (ii) identifies issues that would need to be addressed and data that would be required to make more informed decisions regarding this issue, (iii) develops a cost-benefit model that could be utilized in designing an economic research project evaluating the economic costs and benefits of HAART, and (iv) performs a preliminary test of this model with data from Costa Rica.
Results: A review of experiences with this issue reveals that there are growing political, legal and budgetary pressures for countries to make tenable decisions regarding the purchase of drugs for HAART. An economic model describing the costs and benefits of HAART is proposed, although much of the required data for using such a model is currently neither available or in the process of being collected.
Conclusions: It is imperative that economic data be collected to better inform policymakers in developing countries about their decision regarding the purchase of these drugs. It is recommended that such economic data be collected as organizations such as the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/ AIDS (UNAIDS) initiate their medical assessments of HAART in developing countries.
PIP: The ideal treatment strategy for people with AIDS (PWAs), involving the use of one or more protease inhibitors and 2 reverse transcriptase inhibitors, is known as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). HAART is greatly helping PWAs, sometimes enabling patients in the final stages of AIDS to regain enough health and strength to again actively and productively participate in society. With such successes in developed countries, policymakers in developing countries are increasingly being pressured to provide HAART for their own populations. The drugs needed for HAART, however, are very expensive and may require administration throughout the remainder of the life of the PWA. Few, if any, similarly expensive drugs are currently available in developing countries. The author reviews existing experiences of policymakers in developing countries on the purchase of drugs needed for HAART, identifies the issues to address and data needed to make more informed decisions on the subject, develops a cost-benefit model which could be used to design an economic research project evaluating the economic costs and benefits of HAART, and tests the model with data from Costa Rica. Political, legal, and budgetary pressures are mounting for countries to make viable decisions on buying drugs for HAART. An economic model describing the costs and benefits of HAART is proposed, although much of the required data for using such a model is currently neither available nor being collected.