Cost of HIV/AIDS tests to be reduced

Jan 18, 2004

Five leading medical technology companies have agreed to make major cuts in the prices of HIV and AIDS laboratory tests for millions of people in Africa and the Caribbean, former U.S. President Bill Clinton announced on Wednesday.

Five leading medical technology companies have agreed to make major cuts in the prices of HIV and AIDS laboratory tests for millions of people in Africa and the Caribbean, former U.S. President Bill Clinton announced on Wednesday.

“The agreement will lower test costs by as much as 80%,” says Clinton, whose foundation is working in 16 countries to set up care, treatment and HIV/AIDS prevention programmes.

“Such big savings mean we can treat many more people with the same amount of money,” says Clinton.

The companies involved are Bayer Diagnostics, a unit of German drug maker Bayer, Beckman Coulter Inc., Becton, Dickinson & Co., French firm bioMerieux and Roche Diagnostics, a division of Swiss pharmaceutical Roche Holding AG.

Clinton says the companies were absorbing up front costs to provide HIV testing equipment to developing countries and were banking on the long-term volume of tests to avoid losing money in the venture.

This marked the second major price-reduction agreement negotiated by the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (CFI). In October, Clinton announced that four generic drug companies would offer deep discounts in the price of anti-retroviral drugs for use in developing countries.

“We are changing the economics of HIV/AIDS treatment in places where, before now, very few people have been able to receive life-saving care,” says Clinton.

The agreement covers the CD4 test, which helps determine when anti-retrovirals should be administered to people with AIDS and the viral load test, which helps measure how effective anti-retrovirals are in suppressing the virus.

The CIF expects up to five million people will benefit from the tests by the year 2008. Clinton said the two agreements would cut the cost of testing and treatment from $800 per patient per year, to about $250 per patient per year.

First to benefit from the test discounts will be South Africa, which could save almost $300m over the next five years.

A deal with South Africa should be final within two months.

Mozambique will be next to arrange for tests, likely followed by the Bahamas, Tanzania and Rwanda, says Lynn Margherio, of the CIF.

Reuters

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