GSK cuts HIV drug prices for world's poorest countries

UK-based drug major GlaxoSmithKline is to lower the price of HIV drugs that it supplies on a not-for-profit basis to the world's poorest countries. The reductions, the fifth GSK has made since introducing its preferential pricing policy in 1997, applies across the firm's entire range of antiretrovirals.

GSK explained that improvements in the efficiency of manufacture and supply, as well as various cuts in the price of active ingredients, had made the reductions possible. The firm said that the new prices, which include shipping and freight, only cover its costs, and that they are applicable to orders of any size.