On September 21 senior United Nations officials welcomed a breakthrough pricing agreement by global partners to accelerate the availability in low- and middle-income countries of the first affordable, generic, single-pill HIV treatment regimen.

"What we are talking about today with this life-changing announcement is about the quality of medicine, is about equity, is about the dignity, is about access to medicine as a human right," Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), told a press conference at UN Headquarters.

The pricing agreement, he explained, will help ensure that the treatment will be made available to 92 countries, and people there will be able to benefit from «one of the best medicines we have» for first-line treatment.

At around $75 per person per year, the HIV treatment regimen containing dolutegravir (DTG) will be available to public-sector purchasers in these countries.

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Photo: open sources