JOHANNESBURG, Oct 24 (AFP) - South African AIDS campaigners Friday welcomed a deal announced by former US president Bill Clinton to slash drug prices in the developing world by almost a third.
"We hope this step will allow a more competitive market which will ultimately drive the prices even further down," influential lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) spokesman Pholokgolo Ramothwala told AFP.
Clinton announced a deal with three Indian and a South African generic-drug companies that will cut the price of a commonly used triple-drug regimen by almost a third, to about 38 cents a day per patient.
The same regime using patented drugs currently costs around 1.54 dollars, and 55 cents for generic drugs.
The deal was brokered by the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative which worked extensively with the four firms -- Ranbaxy Laboratories, Cipla and Matrix Laboratories of India, and South Africa's Aspen Pharmacare Holdings -- to find ways of bringing costs down.
"We welcome the effort the foundation has done to make sure we get the cheapest prices possible. This is a good thing, we need to start moving fast to make sure people start getting medicines as soon as possible," Ramothwala said.
South Africa has one of the highest AIDS rates in the world, with five million adults infected in a population of 44.8 million in 2002, and nearly 1,000 people dying of AIDS per day.
The South African government has been dragging its feet in making anti-AIDS drugs available at state hospitals, but announced two-and-a-half months ago that it would draw up a national treatment plan.
The plan is yet to be presented to cabinet.
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