India’s highest court has rejected a drug firm’s attempt to patent a cancer treatment in a landmark decision that health activists said ensures poor patients worldwide will continue to get cheap versions of lifesaving medicines.

Former US President Bill Clinton has announced agreements with drug companies to lower the price of so-called “second-line” Aids drugs for people in the developing world.

Lab tests have confirmed that at least some of the chickens that died of bird flu in western India in recent weeks were infected with the deadly H5N1 strain, the country’s first case of the disease.

As China reported its third outbreak of bird flu in a week, public health groups have urged officials to bypass patent laws and mass-produce generic versions of potentially lifesaving anti-viral drugs.

THE UN, former US President Bill Clinton, World Bank and the global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria have set up a joint plan to buy and distribute cheap, generic AIDS drugs in poor countries.