A new deal that reduces the prices of key HIV/AIDS medicines is expected to boost access to treatment and care among HIV patients in developing countries.
A global health partnership composed of UNITAID, the Clinton Health Access Initiative and the U.K. Department for International Development brokered the deal, which cuts the prices of two generic HIV/AIDS drugs by up to 60 percent from the medicines’ 2008 prices. The agreement is part of a broader effort to reduce the prices of new-generation medicines that would otherwise be too expensive for poor countries to afford, Reuters says.
Through the deal, a first-line regimen using the drug tenofovir would now cost less than $159 per patient per year, which is approximately 60 percent lower than what it cost in 2008. A second-line treatment regimen recommended by the World Health Organization will also cost less at $410 per patient year, down from $800 to $1,200 in 2008.
These treatment regimens are increasingly being adopted by developing countries, and the deal, along with similar ones secured since 2008, would help generate up to $600 million in savings in the next three years, the partnership said, according to Reuters.
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