The Mumbai-base Cipla will make the antiretroviral abacavir for $447 for Clinton Foundation. Apart from Cipla, four companies - three from India and one from South Africa - will make the antiretroviral drug efavirenz for as little as $240 per patient per year to Clinton Foundation, according to media report.

Four companies, from the United States, India and China, will offer rapid HIV tests for 49 cents to 65 cents, which will reduce the typical cost of a test in poor countries by half, Clinton is said to be reported.

The most common three-drug combination pill for HIV now costs $136 per year, so the new drugs, even at steep discounts from the thousands of dollars they cost in the West, can easily triple the cost of therapy. But as patients become resistant to their first-line drugs, doctors must have new options, report says.

Recently, he Bangalore-based Strides Arcolab Ltd has entered into an agreement with the Clinton Foundation to make available a range of affordable anti-retroviral drugs for the treatment of HIV/AIDS in countries that are under the aegis of the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS initiative.
Strides Arcolab will offer the ARV efavirenz for $240 per patient per year. This price represents savings of more than 30 per cent from current market rates. Following the agreement, Strides will also supply first-line ARVs under Clinton Foundation agreements.