WHO head seeks more AIDS drug price cuts

The Director General of the World Health Organization, Gro HarlemBrundtland, has said that while a number of pharmaceutical companies are contributing to the cutting of prices of HIV/AIDS treatments in developing countries and that they have succeeded in reducing the prices "fairly considerably....they have to go further."

Dr Brundtland, a former Norwegian Prime Minister, was speaking on Norwegian radio during the WHO/ World Trade Organization workshop held near Oslo to discuss the provision of affordable treatment to the poorest nations (Marketletter April 16 and see story alongside), which was closed to the media.

"It's a bit hard to reach solutions, but I think we're working towards greater bilateral understanding," she told the interview, adding that the United Nations agencies and the pharmaceutical industry were in agreement on the main concern, which is that "it's a huge problem that a third of the earth's people don't have access to vital medicines," reports Reuters. Dr Brundtland also said that, while cheaper medicines are important, in many countries there is no real medical system, and health care personnel cannot even know what type of medicines are needed.