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"Big cut in drug prices"
The
Star (www.thestar.com.my)
(01/12/06)
New deal to slash prices of HIV/AIDS treatment for children
NEW DELHI: Former US President Bill Clinton was to announce an agreement
yesterday to cut prices of HIV and AIDS treatment for children, making the
lifesaving drugs far more accessible worldwide, according to a statement
from his organisation.
Two Indian pharmaceutical companies have agreed to supply antiretroviral, or
ARV, formulations for HIV-positive children at prices as low as 16 US cents
(58 sen) a day, or US$60 (RM227) annually, according to the statement by the
Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative.
Clinton would have announced the deal in a speech at a children's hospital
here ahead of world AIDS Day today.
Under the agreement, the two companies – Cipla Ltd and Ranbaxy Laboratories
Ltd – will supply 19 different ARV formulations for prices that would be
around 45% less than the lowest current rates for these drugs in developing
countries, the statement said.
“Though the world has made progress in expanding HIV/AIDS treatment to
adults, children have been left behind. Only one in 10 children who needs
treatment is getting it,” the statement quoted the former president as
saying.
In January, Clinton negotiated the reduction of prices of rapid HIV tests
and anti-AIDS drugs for adults. Several Indian firms were involved in that
deal too.
Unitaid, the international drug purchase facility, established in September
by France, Brazil, Chile, Norway and Britain, would help subsidise the
programme, the statement said.
Under the deal, Unitaid would provide US$35mil (RM126.6mil) and the Clinton
Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative would contribute US$15mil (RM54.3mil), which
would enable an additional 100,000 HIV-positive children in 62 countries to
receive treatment in 2007.
Clinton was due to speak at the Kalawati Saran Hospital, one of the busiest
hospitals for children here, at the launch of a new national programme by
the Indian government to treat HIV-positive children.
India, with 5.7 million HIV-positive people, has the highest number of cases
in the world.
The new deal would provide HIV treatment for 10,000 Indian children by March
next year by adding paediatric care to all adult HIV and AIDS treatment
centres in the country.
France's Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, who is the chairman of
Unitaid, was also set to attend yesterday's event.
Clinton, whose two-year appointment as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's
special tsunami envoy ends on Dec 31, is visiting India, Cambodia, Thailand
and Indonesia – all countries hardest hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami in
December 2004 that killed more than 216,000 people in 12 countries. — AP
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