Bill Clinton unveils AIDS drugs deal for developing world
Former US president Bill Clinton on Tuesday announced a deal with drugs companies to drastically reduce the cost of second line anti-retroviral
HIV/AIDS medicines for people in the developing world.
The deal, reached in partnership with international drugs organization UNITAID and generic drug manufacturers Cipla and Matrix, would effect 66 developing nations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, he said.
Second-line treatment is required in patients who develop resistance to first-line drugs and costs around 10 times the price of initial therapy.
“That’s a very great strain on countries’ healthcare budgets and governments fear all over the world that they will simply not be able to keep pace with some treatment,” Clinton told reporters in New York.
“The prices are simply exorbitant in middle-income countries like Brazil and Thailand. These countries are home to fully half the people on treatment.”
“Our announcement today responds directly to these challenges and sets the foundation not only for treatment for many more people but treatment that is more equitable, more affordable and more effective,” he added.
The prices of so-called second-line treatments negotiated by Clinton’s foundation would fall on average 25 percent in low-income countries and 50 percent in middle-income countries, he said.
His foundation had also negotiated a deal allowing the one-pill-a-day first-line treatment to be made available for less than a dollar a day for developing countries — a 45 percent saving on the current price in Africa.
“This drug represents the best chance that science has to offer,” he said.
The program aimed to provide life-long treatment for those who needed it, and of a standard that would be normal in the developed world, he said.
“When we started this endeavor at our foundation about five years ago, we made a promise to people living with HIV: once you’re on treatment, we’ll keep the medicines coming and make sure that everyone else who needs them has access.”
He also made a dig at pharmaceutical companies who refuse to allow their patented drugs to be made available as generic alternatives in poor countries.
“No company will ever die because of the high price premium for AIDS drugs in middle-income countries, but patients may,” he said.
“I believe in intellectual property… but that need not prevent us from getting essential life-saving medicines to those who need them in low and middle income countries alike.”
Some seven million people in the developing world needed treatment for HIV/AIDS, he said, adding that his foundation and UNITAID would begin to buy the reduced price drugs from July.
Clinton’s foundation, which he established after leaving office in 2001, aims to tackle “the challenges of global interdependence” faced by people around the world.
UNITAID was launched last year as an international drug purchase facility funded by an airline ticket levy. Some 34 countries have signed up as donors to the organization, which has some 300 million dollars in funding this year.
Although not part of the United Nations, the organization works with UN agencies such as the World Health Organization.
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