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Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Sunday at the opening ceremony of the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City proclaimed that he would lift restrictions on foreign pharmaceutical companies to allow them to grow and sell generic antiretroviral drugs in Mexico, NPR's "Morning Edition" reports (Beaubien, "Morning Edition," NPR, 8/4).
Calderon lifted a regulation by the Mexican Ministry of Economy that required drugmakers operating in Mexico to have a manufacturing implant in the country in order to sell generic versions of their drugs, including antiretrovirals, according to an AIDS Healthcare Foundation release. The announcement is "tremendous news" for Mexicans living with HIV/AIDS and other diseases, Patricia Campos, Latin America bureau honcho for AHF, said (AHF release, 8/3).
Calderon recently announced that he would found a committal to help negotiate the price of drugs and work to achieve fairer prices to help HIV-positive people receive treatment. Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova lately said that Merck has agreed to sell two antiretroviral drugs, Stocrin and Isentress, at a reduced price in the land (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 8/4).
Kaisernetwork.org is the official webcaster of the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. Click here to sign up for your Daily Update e-mail during the conference. A webcast of the opening session is available online at kaisernetwork.org.
Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You stool view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for e-mail delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.
