Clinton fund works out HIV/AIDS deal.

New York--President Bill Clinton announced that his foundation's HIV/AIDS Initiative has negotiated new pricing agreements to lower the prices of HIV diagnosis and two antiretrovirals. The drugs covered in the agreements are the more expensive second-line treatments (the drugs needed when the initial treatments are no longer effective).

However, even with the lower prices, the costs are still too high for most of the million or more persons in the developing countries who need them. The new prices will relieve pressures on countries like Brazil that now already spend the majority of their budgets for ARVs that face a growing demand for second-line medicines.

In two years, as many as 500,000 patients around the world will be on second-line combinations, making their comparative cost a major challenge facing ongoing HIV/AIDS treatment in Africa and around the world.

Four companies-Chembio (U.S.), Orgenics (Israel; a subsidiary of Inverness Medical Innovations), Qualpro Diagnostics (India), and Shanghai Kehua (China)-will offer rapid tests for $0.49-$0.65 per test, which reduce the cost of HIV diagnosis by 50%.

Cipla (India), Ranbaxy (India), Strides Arcolab (India) and Aspen Pharmacare (South Africa)- relying on supply of active pharmaceutical ingredients from Matrix Laboratories (India)-will offer the ARV efavirenz for $240 per patient per year, and Cipla will offer the ARV abacavir for $447. These prices represent savings of more than 30% from current market rates. (The supply of efavirenz at $240 by Cipla and Ranbaxy is conditional on certain volume thresholds; for smaller orders, a surcharge may apply.)

The products and prices will be available to the Foundation's Procurement Consortium, which currently includes 50 developing countries around the world. www.clintonfoundation.org