AIDS DRUG PRICING. Coalition's plan to provide generic drugs defies Bush
Administration

RICK MULLIN, April 12, 2004, Volume 82, Number 15,p. 7

A coalition of organizations with a hand in global health matters
announced an agreement last week to assist developing countries in
purchasing low-cost generic HIV/AIDS drugs and diagnostics. The plan--
viewed as a slap to the Bush Administration--is based on pricing
deals with generic drug and diagnostics manufacturers brokered late
last year by the William J. Clinton Foundation.

Other partners in the plan are the Global Fund To Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis & Malaria; the World Bank; and UNICEF. Governments and
nongovernmental organizations will be able to procure AIDS drugs and
tests through these agencies at the agreed-upon prices.

The Clinton Foundation, which is headed by the former president,
negotiated prices last October with Cipla, Hetero Drugs, Ranbaxy
Laboratories, and Matrix Laboratories, all located in India, as well
as with South Africa-based Aspen Pharmacare Holdings. The agreed-upon
prices for the coalition cover individual AIDS drug formulations and
two- and three-drug single-dose combinations that have been
prequalified for use by the World Health Organization (WHO) but have
not been approved by FDA.

The Bush Administration, which has committed $15 billion to fight
AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean, has challenged the safety of
generic drugs. And it has taken heat on the issue, most recently in
March at a conference in Botswana cosponsored by WHO, the Joint UN
Programme on HIV/AIDS, and the U.S. Department of Health & Human
Services.

"The Bush Administration should return to the international community
and immediately express unequivocal commitment to using fixed-dose
combinations and generic drugs," said Njogu Morgan, a spokesperson
for the Pan-African Treatment Access Movement.

Chemical & Engineering News, ISSN 0009-2347, Copyright © 2004
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