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WHO pressures AIDS drug manufacturers

    JOHANNESBURG

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday urged developing countries to begin the local manufacture of HIV/AIDS drugs.

    Paulo Teixeira, the new director of the agency's HIV/AIDS department, said in a statement that this could ensure the availability of the drugs at affordable prices.

    Teixeira warned that unless pharmaceutical companies became involved in manufacturing cheaper drugs, WHO would not be able to make free antiretrovirals available to some 3 million people by 2005.

    WHO made a commitment earlier this week to raise the number of people receiving HIV/AIDS drugs in the developing world to three million by 2005, some 10 times the present number.

    Meanwhile, the Brazilian minister of health, Humberto Costa, has supported the production and export of the generic form of drugs protected by Brazilian patents within developing countries.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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