Bill Clinton brokers generic AIDS drug deal

NEW YORK, May 8 (Reuters) Former President Bill Clinton announced deals with two Indian generic drug companies today to cut prices of AIDS treatment for second line anti-retroviral drugs for 66 developing countries.

The new prices for the second line drugs, which are used when a previous drug regimen fails, will mean an average savings of 25 per cent in low-income countries and 50 per cent in middle-income countries, Clinton said.

''Seven million people in the developing world are in need of treatment for HIV/AIDS,'' Clinton said in a statement announcing the deal in New York. ''We are trying to meet that need with the best medicine available today.'' The pact between the Clinton Foundation and Indian companies Cipla Ltd. and Matrix Laboratories Ltd.

covers 66 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Clinton also said a new once-daily pill currently prohibitively expensive in developing countries would be made available to the countries involved. He said the pill combines the drugs Tenofovir and Lamivudine and Efavirenz.

''The new cost for this treatment of 339 dollars per patient per year represents a 45 per cent reduction from the current rate available to low income countries,'' the statement said.

The AIDS virus infects nearly 39 million people globally, and has killed 25 million people since it was identified 25 years ago. Virtually all -- 95 per cent of people infected with the virus live in the developing world.

REUTERS PJ RK2235