AIDS drug firms renege on price promise

Activists have urged pharmaceutical companies not to raise AIDS drug prices in South Africa when acting on the government's new medicine pricing regulations. According to new regulations, manufacturers are required to charge state hospitals and clinics the lowest prices, while entities such as NGOs would be charged a higher price called the "single exit price". In a statement on Tuesday, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), which operates clinics in South Africa, Uganda and Zambia, said some companies had chosen not to lower their price to government and have instead increased prices to other care providers. "Big Pharma has essentially removed the accelerated access initiative [to cut the cost of AIDS drugs by 85 to 90 percent] from the table and has instead increased the price of these life-saving drugs to a point that we and other NGOs simply can't afford [them]," said AHF president, Michael Weinstein.