GEORGETOWN, Guyana, April 24 (AFP) - Haiti and countries of the nine-nation Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) will soon get brand-name anti-retroviral drugs at a low price of 500 dollars per person each year, a top official of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) said Thursday.
Edward Greene, Caricom Assistant Secretary General for Human and Social Development, told AFP the Bill Clinton Foundation on HIV/AIDS and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) are assisting the Caribbean in negotiating cheaper prices for anti-retroviral drugs with six leading pharmaceutical firms.
"We anticipate that Haiti will be fast-tracked also and that by the end of May, Haiti will be having even lower prices than the others given the level and nature of poverty," Greene said.
Haiti remains the worst affected by HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean, with an HIV prevalence rate of more than six percent.
He said negotiators have already secured brand-name anti-retroviral drugs at a cost of 800 dollars for other Caribbean countries, down from the 1,000 dollars that the region and the companies had agreed to last July at a world AIDS conference in Spain.
Guyana is also listed as one of the most affected countries in the Caribbean region but the Caricom official said that country was excluded from negotiations for lower prices because it produces generic drugs.
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