Affordable drugs: Plans for a two-tier system for drug pricing, which will supply cheap medicines to poor countries though they will remain far more expensive for the rich, will be launched this week by the United Kingdom’s International Development Secretary, Clare Short.
The move is a bid to reduce the numbers of people in poor countries dying from Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.
The ambitious proposals, which have the backing of Prime Minister Tony Blair, aim to carve a clear path through the quagmire of patents and vested interests that have kept the price of life-saving drugs too high for millions of poor people.
But they are likely to fall foul of the pharmaceutical giants and potentially provoke confrontation with the United States government, which habitually fights in their corner.
The plan comes from a high-level working group chaired by Short, whose report will say that drug companies should sell drugs for Aids, tuberculosis and malaria to the poorest countries at reasonable prices.
Representatives of the British companies GlaxoSmithKline and Astra Zeneca and of the World Health Organisation were among those who took part.
Aids, tuberculosis and malaria cause six million deaths a year, costing the afflicted countries $120-billion in lost productivity.
The pharmaceutical industry is being offered promises that tough measures will be taken to ensure that cost-price drugs are not brought back to Europe or the US by profiteers. —