Although many of the ARVs in widespread use in low- and middle-income countries now are already off-patent, the new and better drugs that are still needed would be subject to patent protection.
Drug companies who participate in the patent pool hand over their patents to UNITAID, which makes those patents available to generic drug manufacturers. Part of the deal is that the generic drugs can only be sold in lower-income countries.
As the world celebrates the latest scientific findings in the fight against AIDS/HIV, we are reminded that the public-private partnership involves being able to both "do good" and also "do well".
Yes, it's sad that despite the years of research and millions of dollars spent, there's no AIDS cure and there's no preventive vaccine; but saddest yet would be to ignore the real possibility for real control of AIDS in the foreseeable future.