Economic Report of the President

only one price, the drug companies will generally need to set the pricesomewhere between the highest and the lowest prices under differential pricing,thus creating less access to the drug. Patients who could only afford the drug atthe lowest price would be unable to purchase it at the standardized price.Therefore, offering drugs at lower prices in impoverished countries can play avital role in increasing the availability of AIDS drugs in less-developed countries.Humanitarian AidEven with drugs available in developing countries at prices far below thosecharged in the United States and other advanced economies, severe povertylevels will continue to prevent many AIDS patients from receiving adequatetreatment. Effective new treatments can be produced at an incremental costof $600 per year, but most individuals in sub-Saharan Africa live on less than$730 per year. Furthermore, the actual distribution of treatment requiresmore than just an affordable supply of drugs; it requires a health care infrastructurethat can adequately implement safe treatment programs. This is aparticular challenge for people living in remote rural areas.The Bush Administration has laid out the President’s Emergency Plan forAIDS Relief (the Emergency Plan), a five-year, $15 billion commitment tofight the disease globally. The President’s Emergency Plan works in over 100countries around the world while focusing on 15 of the countries mostaffected by HIV/AIDS, with the goal of treating 2 million HIV-positive individuals,preventing 7 million new infections, and caring for 10 millioninfected or affected by the disease, including orphans. It prioritizes treatment,care, and prevention activities as the interventions most likely to mitigate thedisease’s consequences and reduce HIV infection. By prolonging life andrestoring health, treatment and care interventions can increase the productivecapacities of individuals, reduce the direct and indirect costs of care, and allowthose infected and affected by HIV/AIDS to focus on priorities such as workand school, thereby securing the future of families and nations. TheEmergency Plan’s health care approach also sets out to work within hostcountrystrategies to strengthen and develop health care networks that willincrease access to prevention, care, and treatment services, since the Presidentrecognizes that all are crucial to winning the fight against HIV/AIDS.The President’s plan also works with international partners to intensify theworldwide response to the epidemic and to develop sustained collaborativeefforts. The Emergency Plan devotes $10 billion over five years to 15 of themost afflicted countries in the world. It also commits $4 billion to HIV/AIDSprograms in an additional 85 countries, including international research insupport of new tools for combating HIV/AIDS, and it increases the UnitedStates’ pledge to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malariaby $1 billion over five years. The President made the inaugural pledge to theChapter 7 | 165