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Despite government assurances that a Europe-India free trade agreement will not disrupt supplies of cheap antiretroviral drugs, Indonesian HIV/AIDS activists are joining a mass rally in New Delhi to protest the pact.

Sindi Fitriarti Putri, a spokeswoman for the Indonesian Network of People Living With HIV (Jothi), said on Tuesday that the agreement with the European Union, which is expected to be signed later this year, could restrict exports of antiretroviral drugs from India.

She said Jothi and other advocacy groups from around the world had been troubled by news of the trade agreement.

“Our representatives have arrived in Delhi,” she said. “They will join health-related civil society groups and an international network of people living with HIV from all over the world to protest the trade agreement.”

Under the agreement, India may be required to enforce intellectual property rights on generic medicines such as the antiretroviral drugs that it exports to other countries.

“The problem is that local production by Kimia Farma is not sufficient to cover the whole of Indonesia,” Sindi said, referring to the state-owned drug manufacturer.

Under a 2004 decree issued by the health minister, all eligible HIV patients are to be provided with free antiretroviral s, which are usually distributed monthly.

Sri Indrawati, the ministry’s director general for pharmaceuticals, said Indonesians should not worry about shortages of the drugs from India because the government would guarantee supplies for domestic demand.

“Kimia Farma has assured us that it will keep producing the required ARVs and that it has not been affected by the trade agreement between India and the European Union,” she said.

Sri said Indonesia would not be affected by possible restrictions on exports of Indian-made antiretrovirals because the government had asked the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to provide assistance in the form of the drugs instead of cash.

In 2008, more than 40 percent of the funding to deal with HIV/AIDS in Indonesia came from the Global Fund.

“We will let the Global Fund decide where they want to buy the drugs from,” Sri said.

“Rest assured, the Global Fund will find the best deal and we won’t face a reduction in the volume of the drugs we receive.

“The government is doing the best it can to guarantee the availability of the medicine.”

Jothi’s Maya Putrini, however, said the Global Fund required its cash aid to be spent on drugs from companies that had been certified by the World Health Organization. Kimia Farma does not have WHO certification.

“That is why the money from the Global Fund has been used to buy the cheap drugs from India, which have obtained such certification,” she said. “If the trade agreement is implemented, India will no longer be able to sell its products outside the country and we will have to buy the drugs from European companies, which is much more expensive.”

She said the Indian antiretrovirals only cost about $100 a year, while the patented versions from Europe cost up to $300 a month.

“Even now the drug supply is often interrupted because of simple administrative problems,” Maya said. “I cannot bear to think that if the price went up, many of our friends may not be able to access the drugs anymore.”

Sindi said that to resolve the problem, the government needed to help Kimia Farma obtain WHO certification, and also to encourage other pharmaceutical companies here to produce the drugs.

“The only way to erase all these concerns is to stop being so dependent on imported drugs and try to meet domestic demand ourselves,” she said.