9:25 a.m. Feb. 7, 2001 PST
Cipla [company] helps in fight against AIDS
Indian generic drugmaker Cipla said it would supply a triple-cocktail of AIDS drugs to the world's poor at less than $1 a day, significantly undercutting multinational companies.
The Indian group, which makes cheap copies of drugs that are patent-protected in other countries, is offering the medicines to international charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) for $350 per year per patient and to governments for $600.
MSF said the offer showed its target of $200 per year was almost within reach and called on Western pharmaceutical companies to match the Cipla price. The offer is aimed primarily at Africa, where antiretroviral drugs commonly used in the West are out of reach of virtually all the 25.3 million people infected with the HIV virus.
The same ($200 per year) drug cocktail would cost $10,400 per year in the United States.
Source: http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,41684,00.html
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