Drug maker Merck is cutting the price for its Stocrin anti-Aids drug by 20 per cent in poor countries to bring it within "pennies" of the cost of generic drugs.
The lower price reflects new efficiencies and cost savings resulting from improved manufacturing processes at a new factory for making the medicine in Australia, the US firm said today.
Merck has been under pressure to cut the cost of the life-saving drug following moves earlier this year by the Clinton Foundation to help producers in India and South Africa make cheap generic versions of the medicine.
Merck's new price for the 600 milligram formulation of Stocrin is 76 US cents per day, or $277.40 per patient a year, down from 95 cents.
The price only applies to the least developed countries of the world and those hardest hit by the HIV/Aids pandemic.
The scheme backed by former president Bill Clinton offers the same drug, known generically as efavirenz, for $240 a year.
But this lower price is limited to large orders and does not include shipping and insurance, which Merck estimates adds around 10 per cent to the final cost.
Campaigners have been pushing hard to bring down the cost of such secondary therapies, after a successful fight in the past five years to slash the price of cheaper initial medications.
Like other HIV/Aids drugs, Stocrin is given in combination with other antiretrovirals to minimise the risk of the virus developing resistance to treatment.