Procuring supplies for children

Fighting HIV/AIDS

INDIA: A woman who is HIV-positive, lies next to her newborn child in V.V. Hospital, in Bangalore. The HIV status of her newborn is not known.

Less than 10 per cent of pregnant women are offered services to prevent the transmission of HIV to their infants, and less than five per cent of HIV-positive children in need of paediatric AIDS treatment receive it.

Supply Division has a dual role as part of UNICEF’s global efforts to fight HIV/AIDS: to procure quality medicines and diagnostics at the best price, and to share information related to this complex market with partners.

In 2007, UNICEF delivered HIV/AIDS-related supplies to more than 65 countries. The organization also provided assistance, primarily through Procurement Services, in the procurement of antiretroviral medicines. UNICEF continues to seek more effective paediatric formulations, and offered 16 different ARV formulations suitable for children in 2007. Greater choice allows UNICEF to accelerate its engagement with treating infants and young children.

Supply Division maintains a stockpile of HIV/AIDS-related products that can be airfreighted to any place in the world at any time to prevent interruption of ARV treatment in situations of unexpected stock outs.

Through its procurement services, UNICEF provides much needed support to governments, Non Governmental organizations (NGOs), United Nations agencies, International Financial Institutions, philanthropic organizations, universities and other partners in their efforts to provide commodities to fight HIV/AIDs as well as other diseases.

UNICEF is a partner in the WHO - AIDS Medicines and Diagnostics Service (AMDS), a network for supply management of HIV commodities and brokers cooperation between technical partners, funding agencies, manufacturing companies and other organizations. The AMDS website provides forecasting information to manufacturers, and makes available to buyers information on sources, prices, the patent and regulatory status of quality medicines.

The Global Price Reporting Mechanism is a web-based price monitoring tool that screens and shares prices for ARVs, to help HIV/AIDS treatment programmes in countries compare and choose optimal pricing for procurement of HIV drugs. The AMDS Drug Regulatory Database provides information on the registration status of ARVs in a broad range of countries. For more information on the broad range of Procurement and Supply Management tools that are being used in the field of HIV/AIDS, please refer to the the PSM toolbox. The PSM toolbox is a central repository for a wide range of health-related procurement & supply management tools, including contributions from UNICEF and other AMDS-partner organisations.