The $15 billion U.S. program to combat AIDS in poor countries won approval yesterday to buy inexpensive combination drugs made by foreign companies, rather than more expensive brand-name products, opening the way to treat many more patients. The Food and Drug Administration decision to approve a package of generic drugs by Aspen Pharmacare of South Africa effectively ends a bitter fight over whether President Bush's ambitious AIDS initiative would be limited to buying patented drugs from drug makers in wealthy countries. "It's hard to exaggerate the importance of this announcement," said Mark Isaac, vice president at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, which uses money from the president's AIDS initiative to treat patients in Zambia, South Africa, Tanzania and the Ivory Coast. "For a large number of people in Africa and beyond, this could be a true turning point," he said. "This offers low-cost drugs for people who would otherwise face certain death," he added. "It's wonderful news," said Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an independent foundation that is, along with the United States, among the largest funders of AIDS treatment programs in poor countries. "This is an extremely significant step and very good news for the international effort to fight the global HIV-AIDS pandemic," he said.
