Clinton Foundation Brokers Deal on AIDS Drugs

The Clinton Foundation announced this week it had negotiated significant price cuts on generic “second-line” AIDS drugs that patients need when original medicines stop working, reports The New York Times.

The former president Bill Clinton praised Thailand’s and Brazil’s roles in breaking patents held by American drug companies to develop cheaper versions of such medicines, the paper reports.

“No company will live or die because of high-price premiums for AIDS drugs in middle-income countries, but patients may,” Mr. Clinton said.

The trailblazing deal the foundation brokered involves the foundation buying generic drugs at reduced prices from two Indian companies.

But some observers worry about retaliation by drug companies, the Times reports. Earlier this year, one American company withdrew new drugs it had planned to introduce in Thailand, and last week the United States put Thailand on a watch list for not safeguarding intellectual-property rights of American companies.

Read more on the Clinton Foundation’s work in Africa in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

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