New GPC lowers prices for HIV/AIDS treatments
Johann Earle
Stabroek News
November 13, 2003
The New Guyana Phar-maceutical Corporation has lowered its HIV anti-retroviral drugs for patients in Guyana and the Caribbean.
In a press release yesterday the company says mono-therapy cost was now as low as $54 per year and the triple therapy was down below $195 per annum.
The release says the current costs could go down even further should New GPC be used as a source for these drugs for the Caribbean. The treatments are being used exclusively by the Ministry of Health for patients across the country.
The initiative comes in the context of significantly reduced prices for HIV treatment worldwide. Only last week some of the world's leading drug companies agreed to halve the cost of anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS patients in nine countries in the Caribbean, as well as Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa and Tanzania.
The deal was struck by the William J. Clinton Founda-tion, led by the former US president, Bill Clinton.
For example, under the Clinton Foundation agreement, the price of one commonly used triple drug therapy combination will be reduced from US$300 to less than $140 per person per year.