Treatment Access News

BMS has apparently licensed a second-line AIDS drug to be generically produced in South Africa for regional sale:

*Bristol-Myers Squibb* Co. reached a deal to license its AIDS drug, Reyataz, to two generic drug manufacturers in the developing world free of charge, one of the first such agreements involving a second-line AIDS treatment, according to people familiar with the situation.

Under the deal, to be announced today, Bristol-Myers will grant a royalty-free license to South Africa's Aspen PharmaCare Holdings Ltd. and India's Emcure Pharmaceuticals Ltd. to make and sell atazanavir, the molecule Reyataz is based on, in sub-Saharan Africa.

This is terrific news. Now on to the other pharmaceutical companies.