Poor Nations to Get Cheaper AIDS Drugs

Five pharmaceutical companies announced Thursday that they would slash the cost of HIV/AIDS drugs in African and other poor nations, which have complained that they are priced out of treating the epidemic ravaging their populations.

The announcement received a cautious welcome from the government of South Africa and the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders, though they worried about possible strings attached to the offer.

The move came a day after President Clinton signed an executive order making it easier for African nations to get access to cheaper drugs. The order backs off from patent enforcement that could stop the countries from getting generic versions of U.S.-made HIV/AIDS medicines.

Health workers have regularly complained that the high cost of patented AIDS drugs has in effect blocked patients from getting the care they need in sub-Saharan Africa, which has 80% of the world’s HIV-positive population.

In Thursday’s announcement, the two U.S. and three European companies said they were joining to work with governments and agencies in developing countries to reduce prices.

Only one company, Britain’s Glaxo Wellcome, was immediately ready to announce what it would offer.

Spokesman Ben Plumley said the two-drug package Combivir would be made available at a cost of $2 per day. It currently sells in the United States for $16.50, though it is somewhat cheaper in developing nations.

The other companies involved are Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim, Roche of Switzerland, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. of New York and Merck & Co. of Whitehouse Station, N.J.

They will work with five international agencies: UNAIDS, the World Health Organization, the World Bank, the U.N. Population Fund and the U.N. Children’s Fund.

South Africa said it was worried that the companies might attach conditions to their offers, particularly that governments not pursue importing cheaper, generic versions of the drugs.

The Nobel Prize-winning organization Doctors Without Borders also said it wanted to know more.

“We appreciate this announcement, but we . . . don’t know all the details of the offer,” spokeswoman Catherine Gavin said.