Clinton Helps Broker Deal for Medicine to Treat AIDS
With the financial backing of a group of nations led by France, former President Bill Clinton announced Thursday that his foundation had negotiated deeply reduced prices for 19 AIDS drugs to treat children, halving the cost of the simplest-to-use therapy — three drugs combined in a single pill — to less than $60 a year for each boy and girl.
The countries, France, Brazil, Britain, Norway and Chile, are putting up $35 million to buy antiretroviral drugs and diagnostic tests to treat 100,000 more children in 40 nations next year. Most of the money was raised through taxes on airline tickets, a dedicated revenue source suited to ensuring the lifelong treatment of children with AIDS.
The Clinton Foundation, which has established a record of lowering AIDS drug prices in recent years, negotiated on the countries’ behalf, using their pooled purchasing power to get volume discounts on the drugs.
Read the full article on the New York Times Web site.