Russia depends on foreign manufacturers for HIV tests

The Treatment Readiness Coalition (ITPC) analysed the procurement of test systems for evaluating HIV treatment for 2020 and 2021.

25/07/2022

According to the ITPC, the share of imported tests for determining immune status is 97%, for determining viral load – 31%, and for determining resistance to HIV drugs – 72%.

The Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor responded to the activist group Patient Control that “There are no difficulties in production of reagent kits for determining resistance and viral load”. “But resistance tests are performed on analysers from the American company Applied Biosystems that require the use of special reagents and supplies from the same company. If Applied Biosystems stops delivering supplies and reagents to Russia, it will be impossible to perform a drug resistance examination,” wrote the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor.

“It is impossible to replace foreign HIV tests in the near future, since this industry has not been the subject of attention of Russian manufacturers. Everything could always be imported and bought, there was no awareness that we were dependent on imports. The equipment in the regions also require maintenance by foreign manufacturing companies and their supplies,” said Natalia Egorova, head of the ITPC monitoring department.

In order to achieve the goals of the Russian HIV Strategy 2030, which proposes the detection of 95% of all HIV infection cases, outreach to people with the virus for antiretroviral therapy, and decreasing viral load to under the threshold of detection in those receiving therapy, ITRC suggests:

• Accelerating the development and implementation of Russian-made tests and overcoming import dependence
• Considering centralising the procurement of test systems, as large purchases will reduce prices
• Increasing funding from federal and regional budgets for diagnostic facilities
• Introducing advanced drug resistance monitoring to minimise its spread
• Lowering prices for test systems to increase testing coverage

Source: https://www.asi.org.ru/news/2022/07/25/paczientskaya-organizacziya/