Former US president to unveil new AIDS plan

Former US president Bill Clinton will on Tuesday announce an initiative to radically cut the cost of testing people for HIV in developing countries. Research shows that in most of these countries the current costs of testing had become a significant barrier to HIV/AIDS diagnosis and treatment. According to Financial Times USA, the initiative follows Clinton's brokering of an agreement with pharmaceutical companies in 2003 to reduce the price of antiretroviral drugs across the globe. Clinton struck a deal with a South African drug manufacturer as well as three Indian pharmaceutical companies in November to cut the price of a commonly used triple-drug regimen by almost a third, to about US 38 cents a day per patient.