Expedited FDA Approval Process for FDCs ‘Paves Way’ for Greater Number of Drugs to Enter Market, Letter to Editor Says

The Bush administration's decision to offer an expedited FDA review process for fixed-dose combination antiretroviral drugs "paves the way for a greater number of FDCs to enter the market in the developing world, which should further encourage their widespread use," Gareth Thomas, parliamentary under secretary of state in the British Department for International Development, writes in a Guardian letter to the editor. The program "underlines the [United States'] commitment to working with other donors and governments to minimize the devastating effects" of HIV/AIDS and will allow developing countries to purchase four to five times more antiretroviral drugs "than originally promised" under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, Thomas says. The British government also is "committed to working with the international community to improve access to treatment" and is doing so through contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and direct assistance to governments in developing countries, Thomas says (Thomas, Guardian, 5/24).