Clinton Foundation Orders AIDS Drugs

Using funds provided by UNITAID, the Clinton Foundation will buy $100 million worth of second-line AIDS treatments to distribute in 27 low-income countries between now and the end of 2008. UNITAID is a drug-purchasing organization founded by France, Brazil, Chile, Norway, and the U.K. that funds itself with a levy on airline tickets.

The main suppliers will be the Indian generic drug companies Matrix Laboratories, which is now a subsidiary of Mylan Laboratories, and Cipla. Other suppliers include Abbott Laboratories, Aurobindo, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, and Ranbaxy Laboratories. Second-line treatments, which include once-a-day pill containing the drugs tenofovir, lamivudine, and efavirenz, are required by patients who develop resistance to first-line treatments.

At the same time, the Clinton Foundation says it has negotiated deals with Matrix and Cipla that will lower the price of the second-line treatments for low- and middle-income countries. The average cost reductions will be 25% in middle-income countries and 50% in the low-income ones.

According to the foundation, Mylan and Cipla have been able to lower their prices ???in part by securing lower prices for key raw materials and by addressing major chemistry challenges."