Former United States president Bill Clinton announced deals with two Indian generic drug companies on Tuesday to cut prices of Aids treatment for second-line antiretroviral drugs for 66 developing countries.
The new prices for the second-line drugs, which are used when a previous drug regimen fails, will mean an average saving of 25% in low-income countries and 50% in middle-income countries, Clinton said.
”Seven million people in the developing world are in need of treatment for HIV/Aids,” Clinton said in a statement announcing the deal in New York. ”We are trying to meet that need with the best medicine available today.”
The pact between the Clinton Foundation and Indian companies Cipla and Matrix Laboratories covers 66 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Clinton also said a new once-daily pill currently prohibitively expensive in developing countries would be made available to the countries involved. He said the pill combines the drugs Tenofovir and Lamivudine and Efavirenz.
”The new cost for this treatment of $339 per patient per year represents a 45% reduction from the current rate available to low-income countries,” the statement said.
Aids infects nearly 39-million people globally, and has killed 25-million people since it was identified 25 years ago. Virtually all — 95% — of people infected with the virus live in the developing world. — Reuters