A US pharmaceutical company is to give 50 of the world's poorest countries unlimited supply of an AIDS drug to treat patients, free of charge. Chairman of Pfizer, Henry McKinnell, told a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York that there would be no time or monetary limit to the programme, which will supply the Diflucan drug.
Mr McKinnell said that the move was a direct response to UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan's plea for companies like Pfizer to do more to combat the spread of the disease. The 50 least-developed nations to benefit from the offer are home to about 12 million people with AIDS. This represents one third of the world's total cases.
