CABINET HAS approved the award of multimillion dollar contracts to procure antiretroviral drugs under the HIV/AIDS Treatment, Prevention and Policy project.
Information Minister, Senator Burchell Whiteman, announced the contract awards at Monday's post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.
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The contracts were awarded to Medi-Grace Limited, in the amount of $29.8 million, and Abbott Laboratories in Puerto Rico, for $28 million. Contracts were also awarded for a total of $1.4 million to Gilead in the United States, Bristol-Myers Squibb in Puerto Rico, and Lasco Distributors.
Senator Whiteman said the antiretroviral therapy would reduce the HIV viral load as much as possible, assure that damage inflicted on the immune system is minimised, enhance quality of life and reduce opportunistic infections.
He said the drugs purchased would be made available through the existing public health facilities and the newly-developed treatment centres.
