*EPF317 06/18/2003
Price for HIV/AIDS Drugs Dropping in 10 Latin American Countries
(U.N. says price drop will help more people get treatment for HIV/AIDS) (510)

Washington -- The United Nations says the price of drugs that treat HIV/AIDS will drop in 10 Latin American countries.

In a June 13 statement, the U.N.'s Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said the price reduction comes in the wake of June 5-7 negotiations in Lima, Peru, between health ministers of the 10 Latin American countries and pharmaceutical companies. The countries benefiting from the price reduction are Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

PAHO said anti-retroviral drugs drastically reduce the incidence of "opportunistic" infections and substantially improve the quality of life for people infected with HIV/AIDS. But since the drugs cost between $1,000 to $5,000 per regimen, they are unaffordable to the vast majority of the population in developing countries.

However, following the agreement with the pharmaceutical companies, prices will now fluctuate between $350 and $690 per regimen, making the drugs affordable to more people in the region.

The price reductions "are a demonstration of what can be achieved when governments and the pharmaceutical companies are truly committed to the well-being of the population," said PAHO Director Mirta Roses Periago. "We congratulate the [Latin American] countries on their commitment in utilizing this benefit to improve the care of people living with HIV in the region."

PAHO said negotiations to obtain lower prices for anti-retroviral drugs in the region have continued since 2001. Other important discounts were obtained for Caribbean countries in June 2002, and for Central America in February 2003.

The agency said that in all the Americas, one in every 200 persons between the ages of 15 and 49 is HIV-infected. In the Caribbean, one of every 50 persons has the infection. The Caribbean has the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS outside of sub-Saharan Africa.

U.S. government efforts to stop the HIV/AIDS epidemic worldwide include a new initiative which authorizes $15 billion to be spent over the next five years to fight AIDS abroad.

President Bush, when signing into law on May 27 the U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act of 2003, described the legislation as "the largest single up-front commitment in history for an international public health initiative involving a single disease."

The legislation includes additional money for the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. It also includes more funding for U.S. efforts in many countries to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, which funds many HIV/AIDS programs worldwide, said studies have shown that short, affordable courses of anti-retroviral therapy for HIV-infected pregnant women can reduce HIV transmission to newborn babies by 20 to 50 percent.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has called HIV/AIDS one of the world's biggest killers.

"It is more devastating than any army, any conflict, or any weapon of mass destruction," said Powell.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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