We have a single, sustainable, not-for-profit preferential price for each of our ARVs which we make available to a wide range of customers in the Least Developed Countries and sub-Saharan Africa – a total of 64 countries. Including projects fully financed by the Global Fund and PEPFAR countries, Combivir is now available at a not-for-profit price of $0.54 per day in over 80 of the world's poorest countries.
In addition, all private employers in sub-Saharan Africa who provide care and treatment to their uninsured staff can purchase our anti-retroviral (ARVs) medicines at not-for-profit prices. We have granted eight voluntary licences for our ARVs to African generic companies to enable them to manufacture these medicines more cheaply for people living in Least Developed Countries.
In 2008, we shipped 11.4 million tablets of not-for-profit-priced Combivir and 58.6 million tablets of not-for-profit Epivir to the developing world, and our licensees shipped a further 279 million.
Early in 2009 GSK announced a new strategic approach to pricing in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). This included a reduction in prices for patented medicines in the LDCs so that they are no higher than 25 per cent of the price in the developed world. This will be the maximum price - where possible we will go further and reduce our prices more aggressively. We want our offer to be sustainable so we will need to recover our actual cost of goods. We also announced that we will reinvest 20 per cent of our profits from LDCs back into projects to widen access and strengthen the healthcare infrastructure of LDCs.
We believe that our response is not only the right thing to do but also makes sound business sense.