Drug companies should make HIV drugs free to poor countries

The boards and executives of drug companies could catalyse action against the AIDS epidemic by immediately reducing the costs of HIV drugs in poor countries to zero, argues the president of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (p 214). However, the chairman of GlaxoSmithKline states that his company offers its medicines to poor countries at preferential prices that cover basic costs so the company can make a sustainable commitment to provide its medicines for the long term (p 216). The chairperson of South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign (p 217) says that the international community's lack of political will to provide antiretrovirals to people with HIV and AIDS is more dangerous than the South African president's belief that poverty is the cause of AIDS.    

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Relevant Article

"We all have AIDS": case for reducing the cost of HIV drugs to zero • Commentary: The reality of treating HIV and AIDS in poor countries • Commentary: Most South Africans cannot afford anti-HIV drugs

Donald Berwick, Richard Sykes, and Zackie Achmat
BMJ 2002 324: 214-218. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]