Haiti and countries of the nine-nation Organization of Eastern Caribbean States will soon get brand-name antiretroviral drugs at a price of $500 per person each year, Edward Greene, the assistant secretary general of human and social development for the Caribbean Community, said Thursday. The Bill Clinton Foundation on HIV/AIDS and the Pan American Health Organization are assisting the Caribbean in negotiating cheaper prices for antiretroviral drugs with six leading pharmaceutical firms, Greene said. "We anticipate that Haiti will be fast-tracked also and that by the end of May, Haiti will be having even lower prices than the others given the level and nature of poverty," he said. Negotiators have already secured brand-name antiretroviral drugs for $800 for the other Caribbean countries, down from $1,000 that the region and drug companies last agreed to in July at the 14th International AIDS Conference in Spain.

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