ABSTRACT
IN JULY 2005, 1 week into his new job as Brazil’s new health minister, José Saraiva Felipe found himself attempting to renegotiate access to an important AIDS drug that is made freely available by the Brazilian government to all who need it. The number of Brazilians taking the drug was expected to increase from 23,400 to 60,000. Felipe needed to strike a deal. One drug (Kaletra) alone was absorbing a third of his ministry’s budget for antiviral medicines.
