Annan pushes AIDS drug makers to lower prices
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By Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan encouraged executives from nine drug companies on Monday to lower prices of AIDS medicines and step up efforts to develop AIDS drugs and diagnostics for children.
Annan for the first time included generic drug makers in his latest in a series of meetings with top drug makers at U.N. headquarters over the past five years.
The meetings aim to encourage the pharmaceutical firms to broaden access to AIDS drugs, care and support services in low- and middle-income countries.
While the executives had helped, the AIDS epidemic was "still outpacing our efforts, and we need to work together in a broad partnership to step up the response," he said.