Sometimes, You Can Find Some Good News

From the NY Times-

The cost of treating children infected with H.I.V. and AIDS is poised to plummet next year, under a deal announced today between two Indian drugmakers and former President Bill Clinton’s foundation.

Cipla and Ranbaxy Laboratories agreed to make 19 different anti-retroviral drugs designed for children available to 62 developing countries at an average price of $60 a year, which is less than half of the lowest current price, the Clinton Foundation said in a statement. Because not everyone has access to the lowest current price, the plan will actually translate into a four- to six-fold cost reduction for many children, said Stephen Lewis, the United Nations special envoy for H.I.V. and AIDS in Africa.

Many current AIDS drugs are made only in dosages and formats appropriate for adults, but the new drugs will be made specifically for easy administration to children.

“Whatever else happens,” Mr. Clinton said by telephone this evening from Chennai, where he flew after announcing the program in New Delhi, “we’re going to be able to save hundreds of thousands — and, in the next few years, millions — of lives of young people, because there’s a funding source to get them medicine, there’s an affordable price, and the medicine itself is a 3-in-1 pill that will be far easier to take and stay on.”...

Something encouraging to start off your evening for a change.

UPDATE (12/1): Today the world marks World AIDS Day. Keep it in your thoughts.