E-drug: ART for 38 cents per day? (cont'd)
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AIDS Drugs Now Available for $0.36 Cents a Day
Under Clinton Foundation Deal
Geneva, 22 October 2003 -- Doctors Without Borders / Medecins
Sans Frontieres has welcomed today's Clinton Foundation
announcement that generic AIDS drugs will now be available in
some developing countries at dramatically reduced prices -- the
new price of $0.36 per day nearly halves the lowest price to date.
The generic companies involved in this agreement are producing
fixed-dose combinations, which can be taken in the form of one pill
twice a day.
"One pill twice-a-day at this reduced price is exactly what is needed
to rapidly expand the numbers of people receiving anti-retroviral
treatment in developing countries," said Dr Bernard Pecoul of
MSF's Access to Essential Medicines Campaign. "With this
announcement, the World Health Organization's objective of
reaching 3 million by 2005 becomes much more feasible."
The best price of the most frequently used fixed-dose combination
in MSF's projects -- lamivudine/stavudine/nevirapine -- until today
has been $255. The new price for this combination will be $132 per
patient per year, a near 50% drop.
The drugs covered by today's announcement are currently under
patent in South Africa, but last week the South African Competition
Commission ruled that the government should override patents to
allow lower priced medicines and in particular fixed-dose
combinations.
Contact: Kris Torgeson at + 1 212 655 3764 (New York) or Sean
Healy at +41 22 849 8401 (Geneva)
Rachel M. Cohen
U.S. Director, Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)
333 Seventh Avenue, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10001-5004, USA
Tel: +1-212-655-3762
Mobile: +1-917-331-9077
Fax: +1-212-679-7016
E-mail: rachel.cohen@newyork.msf.org
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
http://www.accessmed-msf.org/
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