[Ip-health] Associated Press: Clinton, Drug Companies Strike Deal to Lower AIDS Drug Prices

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

Clinton, Drug Companies Strike
Deal to Lower AIDS Drug Prices
Associated Press
May 8, 2007 11:28 a.m.

NEW YORK -- Former President Bill Clinton announced agreements with
drug companies Tuesday to lower the price of so-called "second-line"
AIDS drugs for people in the developing world and to make a once-a-day
AIDS pill available for less than $1 a day.

The antiretroviral drugs are needed by patients who develop resistance
to first-line treatment and currently cost 10 times as much as
first-line therapy, Mr. Clinton said. Nearly half a million patients
will require these drugs by 2010.

Mr. Clinton's foundation negotiated agreements with generic drug makers
Cipla Ltd. and Matrix Laboratories Ltd. that he said would mean an
average savings of 25% in low-income countries and 50% in middle-income
countries. He said the companies collaborated with the foundation to
lower production costs, in part by securing lower prices for raw
materials.

The reduced-price, once-daily pill combines the drugs tenofovir,
lamivudine and efavirenz.

Mr. Clinton said the new price of $339 per patient per year would be
45% lower than the current rate available to low-income countries and
67% less than the price available to many middle-income countries.

The Clinton Foundation's activities are being financed by Unitaid, an
organization formed by France and 19 other nations that have earmarked
a small portion of their airline tax revenues for HIV/AIDS programs in
developing countries.

Unitaid will provide the foundation with more than $100 million to buy
second-line medicines for 27 countries through 2008.

"Every person living with HIV deserves access to the most effective
medicines, and Unitaid aims to ensure that these are affordable for all
developing countries," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy,
chairman of Unitaid's board, said in a statement.

Since starting its HIV/AIDS Initiative in 2002, the Clinton Foundation
has worked with 25 countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia to set
up AIDS treatment and prevention programs. The foundation also provides
access to lower-priced AIDS drugs in 65 countries. Some 650,000 people
are now receiving AIDS drugs purchased through the Clinton Foundation.

Copyright =A9 2007 Associated Press


---------------------------------
Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
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thiru@keionline.org