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Observations & meditations on the day-to-day

Supplying Aids medication to Africa at cost price.

Wonderful speech at the UN on pricing in the pharmaceutical industry by Yusuf Hamied, an old friend and person I admire enormously. Yusuf is Chairman of Cipla which has been supplying Aids medication to Africa at cost price for years on the grounds that you don’t make a profit out of the poor who are seriously ill and can’t afford expensive medication. What’s shocking is the numbers he mentions: for example, the HIV medication he supplies to various African countries at for $100 per patient per year retails in the US for $24,000 per patient per year! Skip to minute 10 if you can’t watch the whole speech – it is astounding!

VIEW WEBCAST HERE.