THE Malian government has signed an agreement with four international pharmaceutical companies to reduce the cost of anti-Aids drugs by up to 89% from current prices. “A treatment therapy which costed $480 per patient per month will now cost between $60 and $110 monthly per AIDS sufferer,” Malian Health Minister Traore Fatoumata Nafo told reporters on Saturday. Between 300 and 400 of those struck by the disease will benefit from government subsidies this year, and between 500 and 600 sufferers could benefit from them next year, Traore said. The four US, British and German drug firms said they were pleased with the agreement. The pharma companies are Boehringer-Ingelheim from Germany, GlaxoSmithKline from Britain, along with Merck Sharp Dohme and Bristol Myers Squibb from the United States. Around 3.5% of Malians are infected with HIV. However, 5% of residents in the Sakasso region, south of Bamako, along a key road link to neighbouring Ivory Coast, carry the virus. The government plans to reduce the number of infections by one third by 2005. – AFP