Global health partnership announces first-, second-line AIDS drugs price reductions in developing world

May 19 2011

The Clinton Health Access Initiative, UNITAID, and the U.K.'s Department for International Development (DFID) "said on Tuesday [they] had secured price reductions on key AIDS drugs for HIV-positive patients in poorer countries," Reuters reports. "The price of a first line regimen based on the drug tenofovir would now be less than $159 per patient per year, the partnership said - a reduction of 60 percent from the average price paid in 2008. And a World Health Organization-recommended second-line regimen - needed when patients develop resistance to initial treatment - is now available at less than $410 per year, down sharply from 2008 when poorer countries paid between $800 and $1,200 per patient a year for second-line treatment," the news service reports (Kelland, 4/17).

According to a joint press release, "[t]hese price reductions were made possible through complementary efforts to build demand for new products, which stimulated market competition and led to volume-based discounts, while partnering with suppliers to achieve cost reductions through more efficient manufacturing processes and sourcing of raw materials" (5/17).