Nairobi — The Kenya Coalition of NGOs has accused the government of a lack of transparency in its price negotiations with pharmaceutical companies, the 'Daily Nation' reported on Thursday.

"Millions of people are dying because of lack of treatment, while negotiations with multinationals on an anti-retroviral (ARV) drug deal go on," Dr Chris Ouma of Action Aids said. He told a press conference that: "We are no longer willing to wait for drugs to be made available. We will support those willing to import them."

A Roman Catholic priest who operates an orphanage for children with HIV announced that he plans to import cheap, generic AIDS drugs from India, news reports said. Father Angelo D'Agostino asked the Kenyan government to back him despite the country's highly restrictive patent laws.

Last week, CIPLA, an Indian generic drugs manufacturer, offered to sell a triple-therapy combination (D4T, 3TC and Nevirapine) anti-retroviral (ARVs) to Medicins sans Frontieres (MSF). The drug will cost US $350 per patient per year. D'Agostino said his organisation will also place an offer for the ARV treatment from CIPLA.