Effort for Lower Drug Prices Would Focus on Gaining Patents.

Unitaid, the international agency created in 2006 to buy medicine to counter AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, has taken the first step toward establishing a mechanism to deal with a vexing problem of drugs so expensive they are out of reach for most poor people. The agency is endorsing the creation of a panel of experts to explore the feasibility of a ''patent pool.'' In theory, the pool would hold licenses on patented medicines, which it could use to have them made at lower costs for poor countries. Initially, it would focus on drugs for infants with AIDS and for adult patients who have developed resistance to first-line drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]