The deal, brokered by the Clinton Foundation's Procurement Consortium, will provide 16 different formulas of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) to patients who develop a resistance to a first-line of medication. The deal will cut prices by 25 percent in low-income countries and 50 percent in middle-income countries.
Michael Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria explains, "It can be hard to take AIDS drugs properly, and even when people do, they develop resistance over time, and need new medication."
"Today's announcement means progress on both: lower prices for state of the art once a day combinations, and lower prices for second-line treatment. Thanks to the Clinton Foundation and UNITAID, developing countries and the Global Fund won't have to choose as much between continuing treatment for people who need new drugs, and putting new people on treatment. This means programs supported by the Global Fund will be able to save more lives."
