HIV/AIDS is becoming an increasingly manageable illness in South Africa due to significant reductions in ARV prices in recent years, according to local press reports citing local leader Aspen Pharmacare. In the past five years, the cost of a year's supply of "first-line" antiretrovirals (ARVs) had fallen from over ZAR95,000 (US$15,798) to around ZAR1,200 (US$199.53). This is attributed to the entry of new low-cost generic ARVs.

Aspen has played a key role in securing licenses to produce low-cost generic versions of branded HIV/AIDS drugs. South Africa has been one of few countries to pursue a policy of negotiating voluntary licenses from R&D-based multinationals, as opposed to compulsory licences. The strategy now seems to be paying off, as government relations with major global manufacturers have improved.

However, observers claim that novel, patented "second-line" ARVs -- used for people who have developed a resistance to the first-line treatments -- remain prohibitively expensive. International charitable organisation the Clinton Foundation has intervened, making price cuts for second-line drugs its major priority for 2006, and securing deals with a number of Indian generics makers.