Brazil, Britain, Chile, France and Norway – joined by the William J. Clinton Foundation – announced a new plan yesterday to fund cheap drugs for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in developing nations by raising taxes on airline tickets.

The group will work through UNITAID – a new global purchasing body – to negotiate low prices with drug makers.

Yesterday in Reuters:

“None of this would be possible if it weren’t the ability UNITAID gives us … to go out to the people who provide medicine and other life saving equipment and material and say ‘You have a guaranteed stream of payment, you will be promptly paid, now give us a higher volume and a lower profit margin,” ‘Clinton told a news conference at U.N. headquarters…

Organizers said UNITAID next year hoped to be able to buy AIDS drugs for 200,000 children infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. It also plans to treat 150,000 children afflicted by tuberculosis and more than 28 million suffering from malaria.

See the full Reuters article here.