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Article: Big Pharma and AIDS: Act II: patents and the price of second-line treatment.(AIDS: THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC)
- Article from:
- Multinational Monitor
- Article date:
- March 1, 2007
- Author:
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Six YEARS AGO, very few people with HIV/AIDS in the developing world outside of Brazil were receiving lifesaving antiretroviral (ARV) drug treatment. Today, more than two million are.
Much more needs to be done. Those on treatment represent roughly a third of those in clinical need, based on standards calling for much later drug intervention than is the case in rich countries. But dramatic progress, practically inconceivable less than a decade ago, has been made.
The trigger for the revolution in global AIDS care was the sharp reduction in price of ARVs brought about by generic competition. In the late 1990s, the price of ...