GlaxoSmithKline lowers price of anti-AIDS drugs

Leading pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has announced that it will further reduce the cost of its anti-AIDS drugs in developing countries by up to a third.

"We are today delivering on our commitment to review prices for these essential medicines for patients in 63 of the world's poorest countries," said Jean-Pierre Garnier, chief executive officer of GSK in a statement.

"We are also expanding our existing initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa to find appropriate ways to offer not-for-profit prices to core public employees such as teachers, nurses, police and fire-fighters not covered by health insurance, and to private employers who do not have their own workplace clinics," he added.

GSK, the largest producer of AIDS drugs worldwide, formed a partnership with other drug companies two years ago to offer AIDS treatment to developing nations at "preferential" rates, as part of the UNAIDS Accelerating Access initiative.

"GSK's approach on improving access to medicines is based on partners working together to establish a sustainable framework for improved healthcare in developing countries," Garnier said.

According to the statement, the company decided to further reduce the cost of the medications after a review of manufacturing costs and on increased economies of sale, as rising quantities of AIDS drugs have been bought and shipped to developing countries.

The drug company would supply these medicines at non-profit prices to all projects financed by the Global Fund. The company also said it was seeking approval for packaging to differentiate the reduced-cost treatment from the regularly priced drugs in order to prevent them being imported into developed countries.

The price of treatment with combination AIDS drug Combivir would now drop to US $1.70 a day.

But even at this reduced price, only a small minority of people in developing countries would be able to afford treatment, as poor nations still could not make their own generic drugs, Asia Russell from the HealthGap Coalition told PlusNews.