Boehringer Ingelheim, the privately-controlled German pharmaceutical company, is to slash the price of a pivotal HIV drug in the developing world and waive all barriers to generic manufacturers producing low-cost copies.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Alessandro Banchi, chairman of the company's managing board, unveiled measures to boost low-cost access to its medicine nevirapine (Viramune). "We want to solve the problem (of access) once and for all," he said.