Bush accused of blocking access to cheap AIDS drugs

International health charities have accused George Bush's administration of trying to block developing countries' access to cheap AIDS drugs by questioning the quality of “three in one” generic combination drugs.

At a meeting this week in Gaborone, Botswana, the US global AIDS coordinator, Randall Tobias, said that the World Health Organization's drug pre-qualification programme is not a sufficiently stringent approval process to ensure consistency and quality of fixed dose combination drugs.

He told delegates …