News Summary: Doctors say HIV drugs too pricy

PATENT EFFECT: Doctors Without Borders warned that intellectual property rights are blocking the production of new generic drugs to treat HIV and are keeping them out of reach for developing countries.

PRICY DRUGS: Prices of older drugs have fallen sharply thanks to generics. But newer drugs that are more effective against the AIDS virus are too expensive, costing up to 15 times more.

TRADE DEAL: Doctors Without Borders urged the United States and 11 other countries negotiating a Trans-Pacific Partnership not to sign the free-trade pact, saying it will increase intellectual property rights across Asia and the Americas, expanding monopoly protection for medicines and threatening cheap access to drugs.