The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Matrix, Clinton Foundation ink pact

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Saturday, Aug 08, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Matrix, Clinton Foundation ink pact

Move aimed at affordable treatment for HIV/AIDS patients

Setting an agenda: Former US President Bill Clinton along with Mylan Chairman & CEO Robert J. Coury and Matrix Laboratories Founder & Vice Chairman N. Prasad announcing the agreement in New York.

HYDERABAD: In a significant development that would enable affordable treatment for HIV/AIDS patients on second-line of anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy in the developing world, Hyderabad-based Matrix Labs and Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI), Mylan Inc., have signed an agreement to offer once-daily dose of second-line regimen of four ARVs for under $500 per patient a year.

Announcing the agreement today at New York, former US President Bill Clinton, Mylan Chairman and CEO Robert J. Coury, and Matrix Laboratories founder and vice-chairman N. Prasad said that Atazanavir (ATV), Ritonavir (RTV), Tenofovir (TDF), and Lamivudine (3TC) would be available in three pills, with Tenofovir and Lamivudine combined into a single pill, according to a press release issued here on Friday.

Separate products

All the four drugs were needed to enable once-daily treatment of patients who have developed resistance to standard first-line ARVs.

The three pills were being made available as separate products with a total price of less than $475 per patient per year (PPPY).

One package

Matrix also would sell the pills together in one package -- a ‘second-line-in-a-box’ -- at $425 annually starting in 2010.

This would be 28 per cent lower than the current lowest-priced alternative available in the market.

These new products and prices would be available to governments that were members of the Clinton Foundation’s Procurement Consortium across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

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