(Ecofin Agency) - HIV-infected Africans will soon have access to a state-of-the-art treatment, for only $75 a year. Manufacturers of generic AIDS drugs will start producing millions of the pills for Africa. This with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which will subsidy a major part of the new treatment which integrates dolutégravir, an integrase inhibitor that avoids the drug resistance which often occurs when using traditional treatments.
Besides the Gates, the governments of South Africa and Kenya, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) as well as British and American institutions will combine their efforts to provide necessary funding to concerned pharmaceutical firms, Mylan Laboratories and Aurobindo Pharma, to boost their production capacity for the pills.
In return, the drug makers will agree to a cap price of around $75 per patient a year for the treatment. This is less than list price for daily supply of dolutégravir combination in the US.
The deal will benefit 92 poor countries, starting from Africa.
Ministries of Health and other purchasers in the public sector will be able to get the drugs starting from 2018. According to estimates, the initiative could help the purchasers save more than $1 bilion in drugs bills over the next six years.
Fiacre E. Kakpo