UN welcomes HIV/AIDS drug price deal

Published: 17-Nov-2003

United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan has welcomed an agreement between the Clinton Foundation and four pharmaceutical companies in developing countries to halve the price of antiretroviral drugs treating HIV/AIDS.


United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan has welcomed an agreement between the Clinton Foundation and four pharmaceutical companies in developing countries to halve the price of antiretroviral drugs treating HIV/AIDS.

Aspen Pharmacare Holdings, of Johannesburg, South Africa; Cipla of Mumbai, India; Ranbaxy Laboratories, of Delhi, India; and Matrix Laboratories of Hyderabad, India, will cut the annual cost of drugs for each infected person to as little as US$140.

Annan said he hoped the initiative would encourage other pharmaceutical manufacturers to review pricing policies and encourage governments, particularly those heavily affected by HIV/AIDS, to establish national treatment plans.

  

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