AIDS Sufferers Seen Hurt in Pacific Trade Pact Drug Talks

Edward Low, an AIDS activist in Malaysia who is HIV-positive, says treatments to fight the disease in his country cost about $90 a month, down from $1,000 a decade ago before generic drugs became widely available.

Now he’s worried that a trade deal being negotiated by nine Pacific-region nations including the U.S. may curtail access to those cheap drugs in favor of patented pharmaceuticals, raising costs to survive HIV/AIDS in developing nations.