By NNN-Prensa Latina
Brasilia : Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva inked a decree to freely distribute a medicine for AIDS patients, with a cost lower than the current one for the government.
The measure was adopted on Friday after long and unfruitful governmental negotiations with the US Merck Sharp and Dohme lab, producer of Efavirenz, a substitute for AZT.
The US lab sold Brazil that medicine valued at $1.50 and the country decided to purchase it in India, where a lab sells it for $0.44.
According to reports, the Merck lab supplied Efavirenz to Brazil at 136 percent than what the same lab distributes to Thailand.
The decision was explained by Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao, as part of a policy to provide the medicine to 75,000 AIDS patients in Brazil.