Clinton Brokers Deal To Lower Costs of AIDS Drugs in Third World
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
President Clinton yesterday brokered a deal with generic drug companies that will lower the price of AIDS medicines for 66 developing countries.
The cost-cutting agreement is the result of lengthy negotiations between the Clinton Foundation and two Indian drug manufacturers: Cipla and Matrix Laboratories.
Under the new contract, the cost of second-line drugs, required for patients who develop viral resistance, will fall by 25% in low-income countries and by 50% in middle-income countries. Additionally, a once-daily pill that was previously cost prohibitive will now be available for less than $1 a day.
Since the AIDS virus was first identified 25 years ago, it has killed roughly 25 million people globally. Mr. Clinton noted that 7 million people in the developing world need treatment for HIV/AIDS, and that nearly a half million patients will require second-line drugs by 2010.
The Clinton Foundation has obtained $100 million in funding to buy the newly affordable medications from Unitaid, an international drug purchase facility established last year by France, Britain, Brazil, Chile, and Norway. In a statement, the French foreign minister and chairman of the Unitaid board, Philippe Douste-Blazy, said yesterday’s agreement symbolizes “a more equitable, socially responsible globalization.”