A health ministry official announced Thursday that China will open negotiations with several drug makers in an effort to cut the price of AIDS drugs sold in the country. Within the next two months, the government will start talks with Merck & Co., GlaxoSmithKline and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. -- the only western pharmaceutical companies with approval to sell their AIDS drugs in China. Sun Xinhua, director of the AIDS division for the ministry's department of disease control, said that the cost of the expensive medications would have to be paid for by the patients themselves. He added, however, that China does not plan to follow actions taken by other developing countries such as South Africa and Kenya, which have passed legislation allowing them to import or manufacture cheap generic copies of brand-name AIDS drugs.

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