AFP
Aids help groups announce price cuts for anti-retroviral drugs

Mon Apr 28, 1:54 PM ET

GENEVA (AFP) - Two major organisations for access to AIDS medication on Monday announced new deals with generic medicine manufacturers to reduce the price of second-line anti-retroviral drugs.

Six new and more affordable child-friendly formulations would also be made available under the new agreements, said the two organisations, UNITAID and the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDs Initiative.

Compared to prices they announced in May last year, the reduction would be as much as 19 percent for the most frequently used second-line treatment such as tenofovir, lamivudine and lopinavir/ritonavir.

The latest prices for a second-line regimen involving all three drugs are 16 percent lower than the average price in low-income countries and 46 percent lower than in middle-income countries.

Second-line treatments are necessary for patients who have developed a resistance to first-line treatments.

They currently cost 5-10 times more than a first-line therapy in a low-income country, thereby limiting access for many patients in these countries.

Almost 500,000 patients will need such medication by 2010, according to the two organisations.

UNITAID, a UN-backed drugs funding initiative, also announced the extension of its pediatric project, with six new formulations which are more child-friendly.

"Today's announcement is an important step in helping to save the millions of children and adults infected with HIV in the developing world who still lack access to life-saving drugs," said former United States President Bill Clinton, who launched the foundation.

UNITAID's Executive Board chairman Philippe Douste-Blazy added: "This achievement represents a major step in our partnership to provide more treatments to hundreds of thousands of children through 2010 and to continue to lower the price of second-line treatment."

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