Health Minister JP Nadda has said that India produces more than 80% of the low-cost drugs used to fight HIV/AIDS across the world. Nadda, while addressing the United Nations General Assembly, also said that one million people living with HIV in India get free anti-retroviral therapy and that deaths because of the disease have dropped 55% since 2007. The country today is significantly contributing in the global fight against AIDS, PTI reported him as saying.

The General Assembly on Wednesday had adopted a political declaration recognising the “critical importance of affordable medicines, including generics, in scaling up access to affordable HIV treatment”. Nadda had added that countries could not afford a recurrence of the HIV/AIDS “epidemic” and that developed countries needed to enhance their commitment to fight the disease.