Development and Cooperation


	Contributions from the Column Monitor Challenging guidelines Afghanistan: NGOs adopt code of conduct AIDS drug: Brazil achieves price reduction US Congress slows down Millennium Challenge Account German development budget 2006 Pro-poor growth in practice Military intervention hardly helps G8 summit disappoints NGOs GTZ attracts international funds Generic pharma factory in Kabul New EU trade preferences Privatisation dispute misses the point Scant participation by civil society 8-9/2005		AIDS drug: Brazil achieves price reduction Brazil has pressed Abbott, the US-based pharmaceutical company, into a far-reaching price reduction for the AIDS drug Kaletra. In June, the Brazilian government threatened to breach the patent on Kaletra and produce the medication generically if Abbott did not drastically cut the price. According to the government, local generic manufacturers were in a position to produce the drug for half Abbott’s price. After ten days of negotiations, the company agreed to a compromise. As the BBC reported, Abbott will grant Brazil a price reduction on the drug, worth $ 250 million over the next six years, and the government will respect the patent in return. The agreement means the Brazilian AIDS programme will save 40 % of the current expenditure on Kaletra. AIDS patients in Brazil receive free antiretroviral medicines; the Brazilian programme to fight AIDS is considered exemplary around the world. To date, approximately a quarter of the money for medicines that are distributed within the framework of the programme had been allotted to Kaletra. (ell)