As expected, former President Bill Clinton on
Wednesday at a press conference in New York announced a deal between the
William
J. Clinton Presidential Foundation and five medical technology companies
-- Beckman
Coulter, Becton, Dickinson
& Co., Roche
Molecular Diagnostics, Bayer
HealthCare and bioMerieux
-- that will cut the prices of viral load and CD4+ T cell diagnostic tests
in developing nations by as much as 80%, Reuters/Washington
Post reports (Reuters/Washington Post, 1/15). Although HIV
diagnostics have not received the same media attention as antiretroviral
drugs, they are a significant part of the cost of HIV/AIDS treatment and
limited funding has lead doctors in some developing nations to stop administering
viral load tests and to make limited use of CD4+ tests. The tests -- which
are standard in the United States -- help doctors determine when to begin
administering antiretroviral drugs and whether the drugs are working (Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 1/14). Under the new agreements, the cost
of CD4+ tests will drop from $8 to $10 per test to $3 to $5 per test, BD
Chair and CEO Edward Ludwig said. Roche Molecular Diagnostics Vice President
Robin Toft would not discuss in detail the price agreement on the more
expensive viral load test but said that the price would be 20% lower than
what the company is currently charging developing nations (Dugger, New
York Times, 1/15). The companies will not require up-front payment
for the expensive testing equipment and will delay payment collection until
the system is in place and staff are trained, according to the Associated
Press (Dobnik, Associated Press, 1/14).
Expanded Treatment Access
Ira Magaziner, a long-time Clinton aide and head of
the foundation's AIDS initiative, and a team of management consultants
and AIDS experts visited the companies' manufacturing plants to help them
develop ways to cut costs. The foundation used a similar tactic in October
to secure a deal with Ranbaxy
Laboratories,
Cipla,
Matrix
Laboratories and Aspen
Pharmacare that reduced the prices of commonly used three-drug antiretroviral
regimens to 38 cents per patient per day, down from the already discounted
price of 55 cents per patient per day (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report,
1/14). The new agreement, combined with the October agreement, will cut
the cost of treating an HIV-positive person from $800 a year to $250 a
year in the 13 developing nations where the foundation is operating, Clinton
said (New York Times, 1/15). The foundation expects that the deal
will allow five million more HIV-positive people to access treatment by
2008 (AFP/Yahoo!
News, 1/14). South Africa will be the first to benefit from the
plan and within two months is expected to finalize a deal that could save
the country almost $300 million over the next five years, Lynn Margherio,
executive vice president of the foundation's HIV/AIDS Initiative, said.
Mozambique, the Bahamas, Tanzania and Rwanda are expected to be the next
countries to benefit from the deal, according to Reuters/Post (Reuters/Washington
Post, 1/15). The foundation is receiving private funding for its treatment
project and has received pledges from several developed countries -- including
Canada, Ireland, Norway and Sweden -- to contribute directly to programs
in specific developing countries (Associated Press, 1/14).
Reaction
Company executives attending the press conference
said that they planned to make up for lower profit margins with higher
sales volume, the AP/Long
Island Newsday reports (Dobnik, AP/Long Island Newsday,
1/14). "We are systematically changing the economics of AIDS treatment,"
Clinton said, adding that the companies had done an "astonishing service"
by agreeing to the deal (Barber, Financial
Times, 1/15). "By pushing down the price of HIV/AIDS medicine and
laboratory tests, we are ramping up the ability of developing countries
to treat millions of people, and to do so with the kind of quality of care
that people with AIDS in the developed world usually receive," Clinton
said (AFP/Yahoo! News, 1/14). Richard Feachem, executive director
of the Global
Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said that the Clinton
Foundation "has made a major contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS"
(New York Times, 1/15).
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