Cheap drugs

[archiemac]

If the major drug companies can supply cheaper drugs to South Africa, why can't they do it in other countries?

[Allan]

Today May 31, Gordon Brown is trying to persuade big drug companies in the UK to offer medicines to the third world at a fraction of their price in Europe and America. It could be seen as a voting-winning move just before the election, but it could help countries where HIV, malaria and tuberculosis go untreated because of the high cost of the drugs needed to treat them. Drug companies have argued that countries in sub-Saharan Africa are so poor that even the cut-priced treatments would be out of their reach.