Windfall for Indian firms after Clinton drugs deal, but patients must wait

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2003

BOMBAY (AFP) — Indian pharmaceutical companies are expecting huge growth after former US president Bill Clinton brokered a deal to slash the costs of their AIDS drugs in 13 countries, but activists are worried that Indian patients will not immediately benefit.

Clinton in October announced an agreement with three Indian pharmaceutical companies, Ranbaxy, Cipla and Matrix Laboratories, as well as South Africa's Aspen Pharmacare Holdings, to cut the costs of their drugs used to treat AIDS.

The companies will cut the price of a commonly used triple-drug regimen by almost a third to about 38 cents a day per person.

The low-cost drugs will be made available in nine Caribbean and four African countries where the former US president's volunteer Clinton Foundation...