India to offer 1.5-billion-dollar AIDS loan

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India clears 1.5-billion-dollar loan to fight AIDS in poor countries Wed Mar 24,

7:14 AM ET

NEW DELHI (AFP) - India's finance ministry has cleared a 1.5- billion-dollar

soft loan package to help people affected by HIV/AIDS in 27 low-income

countries.

The 1.5-billion-dollar loan is expected to mean big business for Indian drug

companies like Cipla and Ranbaxy that manufacture generic anti-retroviral drugs

to combat HIV/AIDS, The Economic Times said Wednesday.

In addition to promoting India's role as a global donor, India believes the loan

package will help India's generic pharmaceutical makers seize a 20 to 25 percent

share of the six-billion-dollar-a-year African anti-retroviral AIDS drugs

market, the newspaper said.

The fund size was finalised by an inter-ministerial group and the loan would be

disbursed over the next five years, the newspaper said. In all, 27 countries,

including 17 African nations, will benefit.

Despite promises of billions of dollars to fight the illness infecting an

estimated 40 million people worldwide, the number of poor with access to

anti-retroviral drugs is negligible, reports say. India also has its own major

AIDS problem with an estimated 4.58 million infected people, the second highest

number in the world after South Africa which has five million.

Indian companies announced last year they would slash costs for AIDS drugs to 38

cents a day for the developing world for the triple-drug regimen needed to treat

the illness, for which there is as yet no final cure nor vaccine.

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