Pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), has announced that it is halving the price of some of the drugs in its anti-HIV portfolio for 63 nations, including all African nations.
GSK has been selling its HIV drugs to countries hard-hit by HIV on a non-profit basis. The further reduction in price is due to reduced manufacturing costs and economies of scale. However, GSK and other pharmaceutical companies have been severely criticised by health activists, and earlier this month institutional investors in GSK called on the company to do more to reduce the price of its anti-HIV drugs, including consideration of licensing to manufacturers in developing countries.
The latest price cut means that a daily dose of Combivir will fall to 90 US cents a day. However, even with these price reductions GSK drugs will still be more expensive than AZT/3TC combinations manufactured in India by Ranbaxy and Aurobindo.
The reduced price drugs will be available to governments, aid-agencies and companies that provide the drugs to their employees.
Further information on this website
Largest US pension fund tells Glaxo: license HIV drugs to poorest nations - news story
Investment funds tell drug companies to improve access for poorest countries - news story