SHANGHAI, Dec 3 (AFP) - The European Union has been pushing EU pharmaceutical companies to offer cheaper anti-AIDS to developing countries including China, European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy told AFP Monday.
Speaking on a visit to Shanghai ahead of a meeting with Chinese foreign trade minister Shi Guangsheng in Beijing, Lamy said: "We have been pursuing the idea of two-tier pricing for AIDS drugs for some time."
A major producer of anti-AIDS drugs, Merck Sharp and Dohme announced over the weekend that it would slash the Chinese prices of two drugs from this month.
The company signed an agreement with China's Ministry of Health to cut by two-thirds the price of Crixivan and Stocrin from the start of this month. Chinese media said the deal was "the result of long and intensive negotiations" between Merck and the ministry.
Lamy said that China's entry into the World Trade Organisation, which was finalised at the Doha WTO meeting last month, marked a "new era" in world trade talks, where developed countries were committed to showing less developed members that WTO membership was "about more than market access".
China's entry into the WTO was a milestone to show that developing nations had much to gain from trade liberalisation in terms of improving their regulatory framework.
011203
AF011269
Copyright © AFP or Agence France-Presse, 2001 - All Rights Reserved. AFP articles contained on the AEGiS web site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without AFP's prior written permission. You may make one copy of each article for your personal, non-commercial use only; more copies would require AFP's prior written permission.. http://www.afp.com/
ÆGiS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, the National Library of Medicine, and donations from users like you. Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2001. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
©1990, 2001 - ÆGiS. ÆGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All materials appearing on ÆGIS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of ÆGIS and the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, or the party credited as the provider of the content.
